Yucatan Peninsula at Critical Point for Mangrove and Wetland Conservation, Researchers Warn

Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico — The Yucatan Peninsula, home to 60% of Mexico’s mangroves covering approximately 4.8 million hectares, has reached a critical point for conservation, researchers warned.

Everardo Barba Macías, a researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (Ecosur), said the region’s wetlands provide vital ecological services but face severe pressure. “We are at a very good moment to conserve and rescue the wetlands we have; it’s a collaborative effort between government, citizens, and academia,” he added.

Barba Macías highlighted initiatives like iNaturalist, EcoBank, Tsonot y Cenoteando, which promote participatory monitoring and species recording through mobile device photos. Other projects include Big Seaweed Search MX, focused on sargassum—another coastal threat—and the ACCIÓN Project, dedicated to mangrove restoration.

Mexico ranks second globally in Ramsar Sites with 142 wetlands of international importance, spanning over 8.6 million hectares. The national inventory identifies more than 6,000 wetland complexes protecting high biodiversity, including mangroves, swamps, and oases. Ramsar Sites are wetlands recognized by the 1971 Ramsar Convention for their ecological value, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, covering protected marshes, mangroves, rivers, and lakes.

Speaking as part of outreach efforts by the Sistema de Investigación, Innovación y Desarrollo Tecnológico del Estado de Yucatán (Siidetey), the specialist explained that wetlands function as natural water filters, retain sediments and pollutants, act as natural barriers against storms and hurricanes, and help regulate climate by capturing atmospheric carbon.

With over 25 years of experience in projects like the Atlas of wetlands in the south-southeast and their threats, and recent studies on social perception and carbon capture in urban wetlands in Tabasco, Barba Macías noted that southeastern Mexico concentrates about 30% of water resources and 16% of wetlands, underscoring their importance.

Ecosur is part of a collegiate body of 18 institutions supporting Siidetey studies, aiming to strengthen scientific knowledge generation and dissemination in Yucatan.

Wetlands in Yucatan

In Yucatan alone, wetlands cover more than 600,000 hectares, including mangroves and swamps of high ecological value that simultaneously face intense anthropogenic pressure from human activities. Although protected in areas like Ría Lagartos and Celestún on the state’s eastern coast, they suffer contamination from waste, unchecked urbanization, agroindustrial activities like pig farming, and land-use changes.

According to studies by Yucatan’s Secretaría de Desarrollo Sustentable (SDS), key threats include pollution, as the local karst soil’s high permeability allows contamination from waste, agroindustry, and wastewater to easily affect the water table and coastal wetlands, and real estate development, which impacts conservation by reducing mangrove extent vital for carbon capture and coastal protection.