The Mexico, Guatemala and Belize governments have joined hands to preserve the ancient stretches of forests across southern Mexico and northern parts of the two Central American nations in what they say would be the second-biggest nature reserve in Latin America after the Amazon rainforest.
Leaders of the three countries made the announcement on Friday, and called it a “historic” move. However, the status of the controversial thousand-mile ‘Maya train’ that runs through swaths of jungle and has evoked protests from conservationists, nature-lovers, and the public for leading to axing down of nearly 7 million trees in four years, remains unclear.
The tri-national nature reserve, meanwhile, is slated to encompass more than 14 million acres (5.7 million hectares).
“This is one of Earth's lungs, a living space for thousands of species with an invaluable cultural legacy that we should preserve with our eyes on the future,” said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, standing side-by-side with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo and Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceño.
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The highlight of the meeting, however, was the fate of the Mexican train line that has been criticised for slicing through jungle habitat. While Sheinbaum has continued to push for the project, Guatemala's Arévalo has gone on record to say that his country's laws would not allow it to be built through protected jungle in the north of the country.
The ‘Maya Train’, running from southern Mexico to Guatemala and Belize, is a thousand-mile train that currently runs in a rough loop around Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, and was created to connect Mexico's popular Caribbean resorts with remote jungle and Mayan archaeological sites in rural areas to usher in tourism.
Sheinbaum's mentor and predecessor, the former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had fast-tracked the train project without detailed environmental studies or discussions with conservationists. The populist also repeatedly ignored orders from judges to stop construction due to environmental concerns and publicly attacked environmentalists warning about damage done to fragile ecosystems.
There were approximately 7 million trees axed in a span of four years to make way for the train’s track to be laid down, fueling legal battles as it damaged a delicate cave system in Mexico that serves as the area’s main source of water supply.
López Obrador had first proposed the idea of expanding the train to Guatemala, and on Friday, Sheinbaum insisted the extension would bring in development in rural areas that have not progressed for lack of economic opportunities.
Arévalo, however, remained adamant that the construction should not come with the kind of environmental damage that it inflicted in Mexico, even while he acknowledged the “economic potential of the project to the jungle region”.
“Connecting the Maya Train with Guatemala and eventually with Belize is a vision we share,” Arévalo said, adding, “But, I've made it very clear at all times that the Maya Train will not pass through any protected area.”
He also said there would also have to be careful environmental studies and the need to look at an alternative proposal that would have the train loop instead of directly cut through the jungles of Guatemala and Belize.
It remained unclear how the train's potential route would be affected by the new protected area.
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