Mexico scraps environmental review for Puerto Morelos resort

Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo — Mexico’s environment ministry has thrown out the environmental impact review for a luxury tourism project on the coast of Puerto Morelos after finding evidence that vegetation was cleared on the property before federal authorization was granted.

The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) rejected the review for the FRC-II project, which proposed building a 130-room complex with complementary services on nearly 70,000 square meters of land about 3.5 kilometers from the municipal seat. The developer had planned a 12-month construction period and estimated the project’s useful life at 95 years.

During its review, Semarnat compared historical satellite images of the site from 2005, 2014, 2019 and 2024. The analysis identified areas where vegetation cover had disappeared, prompting the agency to ask the company to prove that the clearing was authorized or to demonstrate legally that it did not require an environmental impact assessment.

According to the resolution, the company neither presented a federal permit for the vegetation removal nor managed to refute the agency’s findings. Semarnat concluded that there was evidence of impacted areas, particularly in the transition zone between the coastal dune and mangrove where part of the complex was to be built.

The agency said the situation undermines the preventive nature of environmental impact assessments under Mexico’s General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection, which requires projects to be evaluated before activities that could alter ecosystems begin.

The project called for permanent and removable structures facing the shoreline, including lodging modules, a beach bar, pools, pergolas and a wooden deck. Although the company said it would preserve more than 85 percent of the land as a protected area containing mangrove, lagoon and coastal dune, Semarnat determined that the detected modifications prevented the review from continuing under the terms presented.

The ruling invalidates the FRC-II assessment as filed. The company can gather the necessary documents to prove compliance with environmental regulations or submit a new application that addresses the agency’s observations.