Tourist infrastructure is being built south of the resort city of Cancun, running to the southern boarder of the state of Quintana Roo. Innumerable new massive hotel chains, along with shopping malls, parking lots, and other people attractions are becoming established with no thought given to the protection of adjacent ecosystems.

The area contains world famous ocean reefs, sandy beaches and bluffs, mangroves, and the spectacular deep-water cenotes.  Ignorant or complacent developers are rapidly building as close as they can to the Caribbean Sea, filling in the mangroves, vital sediment filters for the fringing reefs.

Effects of mangrove disappearance and beach bluff destruction

• green and loggerhead turtles will have no place to nest
• birds will have no place to feed and rest on their long migrations
• resident wildlife will have no place to drink during the dry season
• natural underground streams, normally filtered by the mangroves, will pass microorganisms to the sea, creating uncontrollable algae growth which can contribute to death of animal life and the reef itself
  
  

What about Solid Waste Management?

There is no environmentally sound waste management system in place within the entire area.  Where will all the garbage go that is generated by the masses of visitors to the area?

• Poorly configured “landfills” allow contamination of drinking water and reefs
• Burning trash is the current alternative being proposed, even with all its air pollution problems.
• And this doesn’t even start to address the problem of sewage!
• All of the water systems and the ocean itself are threatened with being poisoned and left unusable.