Introduction to the Mexico projects

The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Mexico is a huge expanse of tropical forest that is continuous with the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Peten Province of Northern Guatemala. Collectively, this forest spans over 7.5 million hectares and is the largest section of tropical forest north of the Amazon. This stretch of forest was also home to the two largest ancient Mayan cities of Tikal in Guatemala and Calakmul in Mexico during the classic period in ancient Mayan history (400AD-900AD).  It also contains El Mirador, one of the oldest ancient Mayan cities, which dates back to the pre-classic period (600BC-300BC). Today, the extensive pyramids and ruined cities lie sprawled through the dense jungle, with some of the taller pyramids towering above the canopy at 65m in height.  It is these pyramids that gave Calakmul its name. Wildlife in Calakmul includes jaguar, puma, ocelot, jaguarundi, tapir, brocket deer, peccary, howler and spider monkeys in addition to over 50 species of reptile and amphibian and 350 species of resident and migratory birds, including abundant parrots, toucans and the endemic ocellated turkey.

The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve forms one part of the proposed Mesoamerican Biological Corridor spanning Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Creating such forest corridors are extremely important for ensuring gene flow between animal populations and for ensuring that populations can withstand natural disasters such as droughts, forest fires, hurricanes and floods. Central America experiences all four of these extreme weather conditions, and therefore forest connectivity is extremely important. Forest connectivity is also crucial for animals with extensive ranging patterns such as jaguar.

Akumal is a small coastal town located approximately 1.5 hours drive south from the major tourist destination of Cancun.  The name Akumal literally means “home of the turtles” in Maya. It earned this name due to the numerous turtle nesting sites along the bays located in the Akumal area and due to the permanent presence of juvenile turtles in the sea grasses just off shore. Three species can regularly be found around Akumal. Local beaches are nesting ground for two of these species: the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). There are juvenile green turtles feeding in the bays year round and sometimes hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricate) around the reef.

Although Akumal itself is a very small town, there are a number of private residences in South Akumal and an enormous hotel that has over 2000 rooms. In addition, there are plans to build 25,000 new homes in the Akumal area but the plans do not include any waste water treatment. The area has many underground rivers, due to the characteristic high permeability and porosity of the soil karst of the Yucatan Peninsula and without adequate waste water management, each of the 25,000 homes will empty their waste water directly into the underground river systems that flow into Yal Ku Lagoon and out to sea.

Forest research objectives

The primary objective of the Operation Wallacea project is to quantify the carbon storage value of the forests and to produce annual data on the biodiversity of key taxa.  These data are being used to draft a report using the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance standards so the forests can be submitted for funding under the Reduction in Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation scheme (REDD+).  Another focus of the project relates specifically to the large mammals. Calakmul and the connected Mayan Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala is the largest stronghold for jaguar and tapir. However, with rapidly growing buffer zone communities, hunting of forest mammals is a major concern for the reserve. Pronatura have been working with local communities to educate them about sustainable hunting of fast producing mammals that live in relatively high densities such as peccary and deer rather than slow-reproducing mammals that live in low densities such as tapir. The Opwall surveys in Calakmul are also producing annual data on population density of the large mammal species in order to calculate sustainable hunting quotas for buffer zone communities.

Marine research objectives
Centro Ecologico Akumal (CEA) is a Mexican NGO that is responsible for managing 50km of coastline that covers some of the most important turtle nesting sites in the Caribbean and providing advice to the state of Quintana Roo on ecologically sensitive town planning. In order to do this, CEA needs to provide baseline data relating to water quality in the cenotes, lagoons and reefs, biodiversity of the reefs, the turtle population and beach erosion. Variation in these environmental factors in relation to the proximity of hotels and residences will provide evidence of the impact of improperly managed tourism and human developments on the coastal ecosystem. In addition, long-term monitoring protocols of these factors need to be put in place to ensure that any future developments do not worsen conditions.  The main research objective for the Opwall teams at Akumal is to establish an annual monitoring programme for the coral and reef fish communities, including data on sedimentation levels. In addition, annual monitoring of the juvenile turtle population and availability of suitable nesting sites will be conducted.