Amigos de Sian Ka’an

Roo is fascinating. Its white sand beaches bathed by the turquoise Caribbean Sea, with its magnificent coral reef, are world famous. The forests in its interior are still part of the largest in the entire country and together with the mangroves and other wetlands they provide us with services that favor the true development of society. The cenotes and underground rivers are unique jewels that guarantee us clean and crystalline water. Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in Quintana Roo really enjoy paradise. However, things are changing. Tourist success begins to take its toll and many of the treasures that characterize Quintana Roo begin to degrade. The beaches erode, the turquoise sea becomes cloudy with sargassum, the cenotes and lagoons are covered with green algae. Paradise is in danger. Fortunately, 37 years ago a group of visionaries founded an organization that has been a fundamental part of the development of Quintana Roo. They are Friends of Sian Ka’an, one of the first non-profit associations in the country dedicated to promoting sustainable development through nature conservation. The work of Friends of Sian Ka’an has allowed the creation of 14 protected areas throughout the state, covering almost 1.5 million hectares. For example, Sian Ka’an, a biosphere reserve with which Amigos shares the name, has become, thanks to the collaboration of the association with authorities and inhabitants of the area, the main ecotourism destination in Mexico. This gave rise to the Friends of Sian Ka’an to propose and promote the creation of Maya Ka’an, the tourist destination in Quintana Roo dedicated to taking care of the economy of the people of the Mayan area and its cultural and natural wealth. With this experience, the Amigos de Sian Ka’an team now collaborates with various groups in Río Hondo to strengthen their productive initiatives and the development of ecotourism.

Quintana

For Amigos de Sian Ka’an, sustainability is not just a matter of rural areas and ecotourism destinations. Over the years, it has collaborated with the large hotels of the Riviera Maya in promoting good practices in their construction and operation. As can be appreciated with these examples, the achievements of Amigos de Sian Ka’an in almost four decades, its work extends from Holbox to the border with Belize and from the Mesoamerican reef to the jungle heart of the Yucatan peninsula. Although the almost simultaneous origin of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve and Friends of Sian Ka’an make them share their name and lead the public to believe that they are the same thing, the truth is that the former is a heritage site. of humanity managed by the federal government, while Friends of Sian Ka’an is a private entity that altruistically facilitates, as we have been able to verify in this article, the true social, economic and environmental development of all of Quintana Roo.

Unfortunately, there is still a very strong, albeit erroneous, view that development must or can take place by destroying ecosystems. For this reason, the exponential growth of tourism and the population binds us, in many aspects, to patterns of poverty and underdevelopment that both damage us as people, as a society and as a destination. The challenges of today and the future to achieve true sustainable development require organizations such as Amigos de Sian Ka’an that, with technical and scientific rigor, transparency, passion, and love for Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula, collaborate with businessmen, authorities , students, peasants, and fishermen, to take care of the natural wealth that will allow our children to have a full and happy life.

An organization like Amigos de Sian Ka’an provides these valuable services to society thanks to donations from individuals, companies, and foundations. These are investments that result, as we have seen, in natural areas preserved for posterity, new tourism destinations with innovative approaches, collaboration with big tourism to grow with less environmental impact, and dissemination of solid information to build a new culture. environmental. We invite you to invest in the sustainable development of the Yucatan peninsula. You can make your donations, which are tax deductible in Mexico and the United States, through the page www. amigosdesiakaan.org, where you will also learn much more about the effort made by the hundreds of professionals who have collaborated with this civil society organization over the years. over 37 years.

www.amigosdesiankaan.org