Yucatán Reforestation

Replanting pastures and restoring forests.

We are working to restore the forest areas in and around the San Felipe Bacalar nature reserve, as well as in the Balam-Kú and Calakmul biosphere reserves. Together these areas cover 20,000 hectares – an area larger than the country of Liechtenstein.

Our planting areas are degraded to differing degrees: some areas were pastureland until recently. Here only isolated trees remain (such as parts of Las Americas 5 & 7).

Other areas were never completely cleared, but either the economically most valuable trees were felled or significant parts of the forest were destroyed by fires (such as San Felipe Bacalar A and B). Both leave behind a patch of forest with very low biodiversity. Yet other parts of the forest are still nearly intact and show very high species diversity. Here we intervene as little as possible, protect the forest and let it regenerate on its own (as at Las Americas 3 & 4).

According to estimates by Global Forest Watch, deforestation in the three states of the Yucatán peninsula (Campeche, Quintana Roo, Yucatán) accounted for 42.3% of all forest lost across Mexico between 2001 and 2020.

Mexico is home to 12% of the world's biodiversity, making it the country with the fifth-largest biodiversity. Nevertheless, it suffers from one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.

Project partner: Plant-for-the-Planet. Planned budget: around €20,000.