Mexico Supreme Court Upholds Environmental Restrictions on Ejido Land in Yum Balam Reserve

Mexico City — Mexico’s Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of a decree protecting the Yum Balam reserve in Quintana Roo, ruling that restrictions on ejido land use within the protected area are legitimate measures of public interest aimed at preserving ecological balance and biodiversity.

The court’s decision confirmed that limitations on the use of parcels inside the natural protected area do not eliminate ejido property rights but rather represent lawful public-interest measures to ensure environmental conservation, in line with constitutional mandates.

The ruling backed the 1994 decree that declared Yum Balam a flora and fauna protection area, as well as the management program regulating activities within the reserve. Several ejidos had filed injunctions arguing that the environmental measures violated their agrarian property rights, particularly restrictions on building tourist infrastructure and other economic activities inside the reserve.

The Supreme Court concluded that the nation has constitutional authority to impose conditions on private and social property when public interest is at stake. It held that the environmental restrictions are legal and necessary to protect biodiversity and maintain ecological balance in Yum Balam.

In a separate ruling, the court declared unconstitutional the exclusion of common-law partners from the preferential right to acquire ejido land, known as the “derecho del tanto,” ruling that such exclusion violated the principle of equality. The case arose from the sale of an ejido plot where a woman who had been the seller’s common-law partner for over 50 years was not notified of her preferential purchase right. The court ordered a new resolution and recognized common-law unions as a valid form of family entitled to protection under agrarian law.