Universities in Southeastern Mexico have come together over to discuss the threat this vital natural resource currently faces.

As part of the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, University of Quintana Roo (Uqroo) presented a virtual conference on the importance of this resource that is becoming increasingly scarce.

Ricardo Torres Lara, a researcher at Uqroo, reported that the universities of the southeast have banded together due to address the threat that the mangroves currently face.

“Uqroo, since last year, has been directing a project called,” Of the Country’s Wetlands and Their Threats, ” supported by universities in Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Tabasco and Chiapas, with advice from the Universidad Veracruzana,” said Torres Lara.

The conference was broadcast virtually yesterday morning, during which there were other teaching researchers, students of the house of studies and concerned members of the general public.

Currently the group of researchers at the university is taking samples of wetlands to investigate them in order to determine conclusions from various points of view, such as environmental, social and economic.

“We are sampling not only coastal wetlands in the south, but also transboundary wetlands (…) Mangroves in particular have to be analyzed from various points, such as social and economic,” he added.

Mangroves are a very important resource for coastal ecosystems because of the many environmental benefits they provide. However they are in threat of destruction in many cases due to legal loopholes in conservation laws that can be found and taken advantage of by developers who wish to build in areas where mangroves are located.

The International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, approved by the UNESCO General Conference in 2015 and celebrated every year on July 26, aims to raise awareness of the importance of the mangrove as “a unique ecosystem, special and vulnerable” and promote solutions for its management, conservation and sustainable uses.

Source: SIPSE