"Mexico adds wetlands to world registry as environmentalists warn against development"

...seems like a step in the right direction for some ecologically important and pristine areas of Mexico. Here's the key excerpts:

Mexico has added 45 wetlands to an international registry that promotes conservation and sustainable development, even as environmentalists warn wetlands remain poorly protected in Mexico.

Environment Secretary Juan Quesada said Saturday the 6.7 million acres of newly protected wetlands dot Mexico's Caribbean coast, the Baja California Bay of San Quintin and southernmost state of Chiapas. They raise the total area of protected wetlands to 19.8 million acres.

The additional areas bring Mexico's wetlands inventory to 112 sites, second only to the U.K. under the 1971 International Convention on Wetlands, officials said....

Greenpeace blames the government, citing a bill now before Congress that would let developers raze mangrove swamps in return for a tax and promise to replace the destroyed trees.

"The mangroves are part of a complicated ecosystem," said Raul Estrada, a spokesman for Greenpeace in Mexico, who called it "science fiction to say you can transplant mangroves...."

Mangrove forests buffer coastal communities from hurricanes and are prime habitat for migratory birds and aquatic life.

www.iht.com...


[edit on 12-2-2008 by anhinga]

It entertains me that so many in the US think of Mexico as "less developed than" the US still they beat us when it comes to protecting the portion of the natural world that is under their control. I think it is great that countries like Mexico have learned from the US's mistakes. Oh, how different Katrina would have been had we not decimated the Gulf Coasts.