Mangrove carbon sequestration highlighted in Mexican workshop titled 'Introduction to the Management and
Conservation of Mangroves' - - -
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Sunset World Puts Together a Workshop on Mangrove Conservation
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Sunset World Puts Together a Workshop on Mangrove Conservation
36% of the mangroves of Mexico
have been changed or replaced. On the Yucatan’s
Peninsula, the damage comes also from non-organized
tourism and human settlements (Photo: PRWeb).
Cancun, Mexico
(PRWEB) March 06, 2013
Thirty-six percent of Mexican mangroves have been changed or
replaced, and the Yucatan’s Peninsula,
home of 55% of them, also presents great damage on these coastal ecosystems,
caused by non-organized tourism, over-exploitation of species and human
settlements.
On the workshop titled “Introduction to the Management and
Conservation of Mangroves” organized by the tourist group Sunset World Resorts
& Vacation Experiences to commemorate World Wetlands Day, the Secretary of
Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) in Mexico, added that the state of
Quintana Roo have the second place on mangrove territory with 16%, only behind
Campeche.
This course, given jointly with another Mexican agency, the
National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Conanp), was directed to
students of the Environmental Engineering, Sustainable Tourism and Hotel
Management degrees of Universidad del Caribe. One of the main points of the
workshop was that mangroves are endangered not only in Mexico,
but internationally by other factors like water pollution, coastal erosion,
natural disasters and climate change.
“50% of the world’s wetlands have been changed, and a great
part of the other 50% is deteriorated. Specifically in Mexico,
around 64% of mangroves are still untouched, but we have changed or replaced
36% of them,” pointed out the biologist Teresa Jimenez, head of the
Environmental Education department of Semarnat.
The tourist group, through it 2 branches, Hacienda Tres Ríos
and Sunset Admiral Yatch Club, coordinated this course for 25 Unicaribe
students to teach them about the characteristics and present condition of the
wetlands as well as the causes and effects of the main environmental problems
affecting them.
On this tenor, Semarnat emphasized that the growing of human
settlements on the coastal zones, caused by the world’s tendency of living near
the sea to perform activities like recreation and tourism, and the rising of
sea level due to climate change “could irretrievably damage the coastal
wetlands” causing a modification on species and cutting down its productivity.
On this workshop, we learned that wetlands cover about 4 to
9% of the world, and some of the benefits that they bring are: capturing an
important amount of the atmosphere’s carbon, provide nutrients to the sea, act
as a refuge and reproduction zone, their appeal for tourism and recreation, to
serve as natural sewer treatment and to recharge the water tables.
Gabriel Santoyo, Sustainable Development Director of Tres
Ríos, on his lecture showed the features that make this ecotourism complex an
example of sustainability on an international level and the efforts to save the
mangroves on the state.
The workshop was three days long. Two days of lectures on
the Unicaribe’s classrooms, and one more of practice on the Sunset Admiral
Yatch Club, where students and lecturers boarded a trimaran to visit some
locations of Nichupte Lagoon.
On this trip we heard a lecture on the situation of the
mangroves given by biologists Teresa Jiménez, head of Environmental Education,
Pablo Rubio Taboada, technical assistant of the Protected Area of Nichupte
Mangroves and Gabriel Santoyo, Sustainable Development Director of Tres Ríos.
The students also enjoyed the marina facilities, a brunch and diploma for their
assistance to this workshop.
