- A court halted the construction of lines 5 and 7 of the Tren Maya project in southern Mexico. But the construction has already finished, drawing criticism from activists who say the court took too long to evaluate environmental risks.
- The nearly $30 billion Tren Maya is divided into seven lines traversing 1,554 kilometers (966 miles) of the Yucatán peninsula, connecting Cancún and Tulum, and Escárcega and Chetumal.
- The court said developers need to comply with numerous environmental conditions to ensure the protection of rainforests and cave ecosystems currently under threat from train construction.
MEXICO CITY — A court in Mexico on Monday halted the construction of two controversial train lines that critics said could damage the environment. But the decision comes so late that the lines are already built and surrounding ecosystems are feeling the impact, critics say.
Lines 5 and 7 of Tren Maya in southern Mexico are supposed to stop construction because of risks to important rainforests and cave ecosystems, and the failure of officials to comply with basic precautionary construction measures. One of the lines is already operational and the other is scheduled to begin service next month, making the court’s decision largely symbolic.
“For many people it is too late,” Jose Urbina, an environmental activist fighting Tren Maya, told Mongabay. “The train has already been built and the damage has already been done, and we can’t fix what they have already destroyed.”
The nearly $30 billion Tren Maya is divided into seven lines traversing 1,554 kilometers (966 miles) of the Yucatán peninsula and southern states like Campeche and Chiapas. Some of the lines have provoked protests and dozens of lawsuits because they cleared forests, drilled holes through caves and forced communities to relocate.
Line 5 connects Cancún with Playa del Carmen and Tulum, traveling 111 kilometers (69 miles) along the Caribbean coast where cenote and cave ecosystems have been perforated by metal pilings. The caves contain freshwater for the region and support the forest ecosystems above ground. Activists in the area said construction is polluting the subterranean waters and that the caves could collapse under the weight of the train.
The 256-kilometer (159-mile) line 7 between Escárcega and Chetumal crosses one of Mexico’s most well-conserved forests in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The line also includes a hotel that has already cleared the forest, surprising many residents who say they were never formally told about it.
The megaproject has cleared around 4,139 hectares (10,228 acres) of lowland and medium rainforest and 2,246 hectares (5,550 acres) of medium deciduous forest, according to an analysis of satellite images by CartoCrítica, a mapping NGO. The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) maintained that only 3,167.29 total hectares (7,826 acres) had been deforested.
“In some cases these impacts are irreversible,” said Carlos Mauricio Delgado Martínez, a member of the Ocelot Working Group, an NGO. “There was a significant habitat fragmentation caused not only by the train track but also by all the access roads that were created to transport materials.”
A court in Mérida that deals with labor and administrative issues ruled in favor of the injunction, originally filed in July 2020. It said that even if officials carried out the environmental impact studies, they still failed to comply with in dubio pro natura. The legal principle says that if there are doubts about environmental impacts, officials must prioritize the environment ahead of other interests.
Semarnat and the Secretariat of National Defense didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
The decision could have had a more real-world impact had the court moved faster, critics said. Line 7 started operating last December and line 5 is scheduled to begin full service in February. Deforestation has already occurred to make room for the train line and the pilings have already been installed in the caves.
Developers will have to finish certain environmental requirements — such as implementing the Rescue and Relocation Program for Flora and Wildlife and an environmental contingencies program — but it won’t affect operations.
Territorios Diversos para la Vida, the organization that filed the injunction, expressed concern about how long the court’s decision took, saying that it appears to favor economic growth, public spending and government budgets over threats to natural resources.
“This delay is particularly worrying given that the project has already reached an advanced stage of execution, which raises serious doubts about the effectiveness of the injunction trial as an effective protection mechanism,” the group said in a statement.
Banner image: Passengers wait on the Tren Maya platform in Cancún. Photo by Caitlin Cooper.
Related audio: This reporter discussed Tren Maya on Mongabay’s podcast, listen here:
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