It’s been one year after Mexico’s government announced the creation of 20 new protected areas, covering roughly 2.3 million hectares (5.7 million acres). But the country’s environment ministry, Secretariat of…
Nestled in the thorny shrubs of the dry forests of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico, a small bird lights a spark for a promising future. After flying under scientists’…
When James Sheppard set out to deploy tiny backpacks fitted with satellite transmitters to track endangered thick-billed parrots in 2019, doubts abounded. His colleagues were concerned it wasn’t going to…
When David Borbón first arrived in the village of El Delgadito in 1980, it was a paradise with seemingly unlimited natural resources. He continued to return seasonally to fish for…
MEXICO CITY — President Claudia Sheinbaum has proposed dedicating 1% of the military annual budgets of the world's biggest economies to support reforestation of around 15 million hectares (37 million…
A bobcat, with its characteristic reddish fur and black markings, trots across a snow-covered field in central Oregon, in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, hunting birds at the Warm Springs National…
MEXICO CITY — Illegal cattle ranching in Central America has led to the spread of a deadly parasite long thought to be eradicated, and conservationists are calling for tighter controls…
MEXICO CITY — A hotel project in northern Mexico has stalled following a series of legal complaints that it failed to meet environmental standards, which would have protected coastal ecosystems…
In the grasslands of Yagul, in the central valleys of southern Mexico’s Oaxaca state, a jaguar makes its way through the bushes. It stops suddenly, lowering its head and sharpening…
YAQUI VALLEY, Mexico – More than a decade after a court ruling that an aqueduct violated the Yaqui tribe’s rights, the Mexican government has done nothing in response, say locals.…
PAPANTLA, Veracruz, México — Juan Gerónimo Simbrón, a traditional healer, walks through the tropical forest surrounding his house until he reaches a 100-year-old fig tree. Among the roots, he sets…
Esmeralda Albañez used to be afraid of the sea. Just thinking about it would conjure up images of darkness, of how deep and unknown it was to her. Coming from…
A decade ago, the overfishing of sea cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus) was the center of controversy in Celestún, a small community in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. Extraction of the coveted…
The corals of the Marietas Islands, a pair of small islands in Mexico’s Pacific Ocean, have survived record-high temperatures and uncontrolled tourism triggered by the sudden international fame of “the…
MEXICO CITY — A mining company trying to launch a controversial phosphate project in Mexican waters has won a lawsuit against the country claiming officials wrongfully rejected its environmental permits,…
YAQUI VALLEY, Mexico — In June, residents of communities along the Yaqui River found various dead tilapia, carp and catfish floating on the banks of the river. According to Guadalupe…
Swimming with giant manta rays (Mobula birostris) feels like an underwater dance. Their slow, rhythmic movements are astonishing to Madalena Pereira Cabral. She describes her dives alongside manta rays, which…
As he carves through dense jungle foliage with a sharpened sickle, 65-year-old Eliezer Mendez Díaz scours for building materials. He plans to make a sacred altar for the Maya rain…
MEXICO CITY — Top suppliers of Mexican avocados continue to work with growers who use land where forests have been cleared illegally, a new investigation shows. Top suppliers Calavo Growers,…
MEXICO CITY — The representative of a prominent advocacy group for Mexico’s fishing industry was killed in July after speaking out against organized crime in Baja California, where illegal fishing…
Protesters in the northwest Mexican state of Sonora are blocking the country’s largest mining company, Grupo México, from withdrawing water, in an ongoing standoff against the company and state police.…
Mexico has pledged to more than double its clean energy output by 2030, investing in solar and wind power while transitioning away from fossil fuels. Yet the country continues to…
Mongabay reported in 2023 that thousands of hectares of forest were felled, likely for cattle ranching and airstrips for drug trafficking. Since then, the situation appears to have grown worse.…
SAHUARIPA, Mexico — Where saguaro cacti give way to palm trees, some 130 miles south of the U.S. border, a small ranching town is quietly obsessed with jaguars (Panthera onca).…
YAQUI VALLEY, Mexico — Without the Yaqui River, survival is almost impossible for the Yaqui tribe in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. A lack of water affects the food…
The rickety rowboat has been traveling for about half an hour through Xochimilco, a precolonial borough in southern Mexico City, past canals, ditches and meadows when it docks at a…
Among the spindly saline roots of the mangrove trees that line western Mexico’s coast, the jaguar is the ecosystem’s apex predator. Yet despite being at the top of the food…
YAQUI VALLEY, Mexico — On Sept. 11, 2014, Mario Luna Romero was arrested by state judicial police in Obregón, a city on the periphery of his tribe’s territory in Sonora,…
GUADALAJARA, Mexico — “It was such an incredible emotion to spot pumas in the Primavera biosphere reserve in Guadalajara City, close to Akron Stadium,” says Pedro Alcocer, coordinator at the…
Along the journey of every pilgrimage, the road to Wirikuta brims with offerings: lit candles, arrows, and jícaras (bowls made from the hardened skin of the jícara, or calabash gourd).…
Monitoring and keeping track of snakes is a cumbersome task. Jeff Lemm knows the inefficiencies all too well. The herpetologist has been studying red diamond rattlesnakes (Crotalus ruber) for years.…
JUCHITÁN, Mexico – Indigenous farmers from southern Mexico angry over landscape damage and poor consultations associated with a massive wind power project have had their day in court in France,…
