Cancún, Quintana Roo — The Jacinto Pat Protected Area, part of the Manglares de Nichupté Flora and Fauna Protection Area, has become Cancún’s urban biodiversity epicenter after recording over 1,200 species on the global iNaturalist platform.
This 16-hectare space, designated as protected in 2023, functions as a “living laboratory” resisting urban expansion, strategically located behind the Plaza de Toros and near the hotel zone.
The monitoring project, led by a 12-person team headed by biologist Lina Ramírez Nava, represents the first formal effort to document biological richness in the most urban section of protected areas in the Mexican Caribbean.
Studies conducted during 2024 and 2025 focused on 21 sampling units where mangrove health and terrestrial fauna and birdlife presence were analyzed, revealing wildlife coexistence in an environment shared with the city. Specific findings show a forest density of 924 trees, predominantly red mangrove, buttonwood, and black mangrove species.
Regarding fauna, monitoring has counted 50 bird species, including grackles, mockingbirds, and specimens protected under NOM-059 regulations, such as the brown-throated parakeet.
These environmental surveillance activities occur under the Conservation for Sustainable Development Program (PROCODES), establishing a critical scientific basis for decision-making in preserving this green lung that few in Cancún know about, managed by the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp).
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