Resort Plans Draw Fire in Mexico's Holbox Reserve, Known for Flamingo Flocks Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
go to original June 10, 2014

Associated Press Update: Developers have withdrawn a proposed plan to build a resort complex on Mexico's Holbox island. The head of the Environment Department's office on the Caribbean coast says developers voluntarily withdrew a plan they submitted several years ago.

MEXICO CITY - Flamingos gather by the thousands each year in the pristine, shallow waters of Mexico's Holbox Island, a sliver of nearly empty beachfront and lush landscape where eco-tourists also go to watch manatees and whale sharks in a locale unlike the nearby hotspot of Cancun.

But local residents are disturbed by a development plan to dredge their shallow lagoon for a boat channel that would support a new resort on Isla Holbox (HOL'-bosh). Environmentalists say the deeper canal would threaten the flamingos and other wildlife that are a draw for nature-seekers.

This week, a group of local communal landholders blockaded the Holbox town hall to protest the development plans.

Three hotels and an estimated 872 residential units would be built on a spit of land now populated only by mangrove trees and flamingos, which wade ankle-deep in gulf waters as calm as glass. The waters aren't deep enough for the construction barges to build the project, nor the passenger boats the resort would need.

"The fact that the lagoon is so shallow is precisely why the birds come," said Alejandra Serrano, of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law. "They need an area where they can stand up and feed."

The developers, a group of Mexican investors called Peninsula Maya Developments, say they want to keep their impact minimal, building their project on just under 10 hectares (24 acres) of undeveloped land. The resort, tentatively called "La Ensenada," would promote "preservation through sustainable tourism based on nature."

Read the rest at Times Colonist

Photo: FICMAYA

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