Profepa Closes 25 Properties in Quintana Roo Over Illegal Clearing of 332 Hectares of Jungle

José María Morelos, Quintana Roo — Mexico’s Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Profepa) has imposed 25 temporary total closures on properties in the ejido San Isidro Poniente after inspectors documented the clearing of 331.901 hectares of jungle without the required permits, officials said.

The closures cover land in the municipality of José María Morelos, in southern Quintana Roo, where local residents told federal inspectors that members of a Mennonite group in the region carried out the removal of low and medium sub-evergreen forest.

The operations ran from October 20 to 29. On October 21, inspectors recorded 304.863 hectares of damaged vegetation across 22 polygons. A follow-up visit on October 29 found another 24.94 hectares destroyed on three additional plots. None of those responsible produced legal authorization to change land use on forested terrain, Profepa said.

The agency also carried out two further interventions, one in Cancún and one near the Bacalar lagoon.

Residents Point to Mennonite Settlers

People living in the San Isidro Poniente area told inspectors that members of a regional Mennonite group were responsible for clearing the vegetation. The allegation contrasts with the position taken by ejidatarios in September 2025, when they denied having sold land to Mennonites and said they were unaware of logging on their parcels.

At that time, José María Morelos municipal president Erik Borges Yam placed Mennonite families in San Isidro Poniente and in the neighboring ejido of Piedras Negras, where Profepa closed a devastated 10-hectare property in June of that year.

There is no official count of Mennonites in Quintana Roo. Recent estimates put between 1,000 and 2,000 members of the community in Bacalar, grouped in 200 to 400 families, and between 500 and 1,000 in José María Morelos, in 100 to 200 families — a combined 1,500 to 3,000 people concentrated in settlements such as Salamanca and Cuatro Banderas. Salamanca, the oldest settlement, was founded by families who arrived from Belize in 2003 and today has roughly 1,700 residents.

A Record of Environmental Sanctions

The Mennonite presence in southern Quintana Roo carries a history of environmental penalties dating back nearly a decade. The El Paraíso and El Bajío settlements in Bacalar, established between late 2016 and early 2017, were sanctioned by Profepa in 2018 for unauthorized land-use change across 1,316 hectares, with fines exceeding 10 million pesos and an obligation to restore the affected land.

Between June 15 and August 31, 2025, Profepa closed 17 properties across the Yucatan Peninsula covering 3,747.59 hectares of affected jungle, of which 2,531.12 hectares were in Quintana Roo — in José María Morelos, Bacalar and the Bala’an K’aax Flora and Fauna Protection Area. The agency attributed the damage at the time to agroindustrial monoculture, mainly by Mennonite communities, and seized a tractor fitted with a fumigation pump in Quintana Roo.

The communities’ farming model, based on mechanized and intensive grain agriculture, has drawn criticism for clearing large tracts of jungle and for the use of pesticides that contaminate soils and aquifers and harm pollinators. According to the National Forestry Commission (Conafor), Bacalar and its surrounding area have lost more than 30 percent of their original vegetation cover over the past 20 years.

Despite the sanctions, in October 2025 the state’s Rural, Agricultural and Fisheries Development Department (Sedarpe) proposed including Mennonites in rural support programs, offering technical assistance and supplies in exchange for adopting less polluting farming methods.

Profepa said it will review the testimony and the legal status of ejido and usufruct rights to the properties during the administrative proceedings. Unauthorized clearing causes severe biodiversity loss, soil erosion and fragmentation of natural habitat in the Maya jungle, the agency said.

Bacalar and Cancún Cases

Separately, Profepa personnel went to the municipality of Othón P. Blanco on October 20 to follow up on the environmental case involving the Restaurante Los Rápidos project. Inspectors placed total temporary closure seals on construction work adjoining the Bacalar lagoon after finding irregularities in its permits, and filed official reports documenting the site’s condition in order to halt further damage.

On October 23, the agency intervened at a property in the Polígono Sur area of Cancún, in Benito Juárez municipality, where it confirmed the complete removal of 20,980 square meters — 2.098 hectares — of medium sub-evergreen forest. The responsible party failed to present the forest land-use change authorization issued by the Environment and Natural Resources Department (Semarnat) under article 93 of the General Law on Sustainable Forestry Development.

The closures serve as precautionary measures to stop deterioration of the affected ecosystems. Profepa will assemble the case files to determine legal responsibility, financial penalties and mandatory restoration work.