Cancún, Quintana Roo — Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) has authorized the Mayan Monkey project, promoted by Alkrou Shared Services, to be developed on Laguna Bojórquez at kilometer 9.5 of Kukulcán Boulevard in Cancun’s hotel zone. However, the complex has been operating for five years as a hotel and hostel with 25 rooms.
The project includes the expansion of facilities in an L-shape on the opposite side of the current rooms, an area dominated by mangroves. It involves the construction of stilt houses over Laguna Bojórquez, a body of water that has suffered pollution problems for 36 years.
The hotel began operations at the end of 2021 without an Environmental Impact Statement (MIA), according to representatives of the Grupo Ecologista del Mayab (Gema). Aracely Domínguez, president of the group, said that due to public pressure, the developers submitted the MIA belatedly, when it should have been requested and delivered before work began, which is now illegal.
The federal resolution also regularizes infrastructure that had already been built without environmental permission. According to the file, in 2021 the Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa) detected the installation of a wooden deck of more than 1,000 square meters and other structures within the lagoon ecosystem without prior approval. The company was fined 50,187 pesos and ordered to stop work until obtaining the corresponding license, which was granted by Semarnat this year.
In its evaluation, the authority determined that the project will generate impacts during site preparation, construction, and operation, identifying 19 activities likely to affect the environment. Methodologies such as the Leopold matrix and checklists were used to assess potential effects on water, soil, flora, fauna, landscape, and the functioning of the Regional Environmental System.
Among the expected impacts are alterations from construction on the lagoon, temporary increases in noise and machinery movement, waste generation, worker and visitor traffic, as well as effects associated with the operation of the dock and the tourist complex. The study warns that these impacts must be analyzed considering the existing development in the hotel zone and the cumulative effects it has generated on Laguna Bojórquez and the Nichupté Lagoon System.
