Save Eco Destinations

Xcacel-Xcacelito sanctuary map

If you’ve been keeping up on Xcacel-Xcacelito through the blog or elsewhere, you know that Grupo Posadas has been intent on building a resort on one of the most important turtle nesting sites in the world. These creatures are the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonian mydas) sea turtles.

Due to shady business between the federal and state governments and third parties, Xcacel-Xcacelito went from being a protected site to a patch of land up for grabs to the highest freakin’ bidder.

Even though this area used to be protected, as it belonged to a region declared protected back in 1998, it is no longer under jurisdiction of the state government. Being now in the federal government’s control, it was commercialized.

Grupo Posadas took advantage of the perilous situation the sanctuary found itself in and recently purchased the area free of legal repercussions regarding nature conservation and so on.

Take action

What we can do is email people in power in the Mexican Government, tell them how wrong we think this is, and do our best to influence them to turn things around. To take this land out of corporate hands and back into nature and the people’s.

I’ve found information on who to email; these are people influential in making decisions regarding whether to keep Xcacel-Xcacelito as an unviolated nesting site or turn it into a corporate wasteland.

The Mangrove Action Project has a sample letter you can email Mexican President Calderón and other folk in the Mexican Government.

Please send them an email.

Restricted Area: Marine Turtles' Nesting Ground

As you might have expected, not much has changed since I last posted about the ecocide alert by the Grupo Posadas at Xcacel-Xcacelito. Essentially, the turtles are going down.

The Grupo Posadas claims to have acquired the necessary permits to build in the area, and also claims that the development will not go on in it but subjacent to it, and that consequently the development will not harm the Xcacel-Xcacelito ecosystem. Yeah–tell that to the turtles.

Anyway, the Mexican environmental and urban development authorities, in turn, claim the Grupo Posadas is pulling this information out of their ass. They said that they have not been involved in the procuring of any permits for these corporate hypocrites, and that no building permits are in the works for the area either. Further, they said that any legal complaint must go to Tulum, as the area is out of their jurisdiction. Huh?

And so, the Grupo Posadas goes on destroying the endangered turtles’ nesting ground and national reserve area and is getting away with it scot-free. Environmentalists can do nothing but roll around in their own frustration, as nobody else seems to care, or at least not enough to do something tangibly useful. The Mexican government, meanwhile, washes its filthy hands in the blood of endangered species plus air, water, and noise pollution.

Maybe they’ll care many years from now, once the country’s popular tourist spots turn murky and putrid, resorts shut down, and locals become the regular victims of cancer and other deadly ailments brought about by humans’ greed and stupidity. Maybe they’ll care–once it’s too late.