Meet the 'Forest Fishers' Restoring Mangroves and Livelihoods in Mexico

[Judi Lynn]

Residents of the Mexican community of Costa de San Juan have restored more than 350 hectares (865 acres) of mangrove forest in the Alvarado Lagoon System in the Gulf of Mexico.

May 21, 2023 by Mongabay

Residents of the Mexican community of Costa de San Juan have restored more than 350 hectares (865 acres) of mangrove forest in the Alvarado Lagoon System in the Gulf of Mexico.

After deforestation and fires, the fishers and locals learned a new respect for the mangroves surrounding them.

Fishers have been working to diversify their incomes as well by exploring beekeeping, small-scale forestry, the pet trade, and ecotourism.

In the village of Costa de San Juan, mangroves still dominate the landscape. Located on the shores of the Alvarado Lagoon System in Mexico, village homes sit on the edge of water channels, and residents use canoes to get around. The village’s inhabitants, numbering fewer than 100 people, learned from their grandparents how to fish and live in this vulnerable ecosystem. However, they didn’t always value the area’s natural richness.

Declared a Ramsar site in 2014, the Alvarado Lagoon System is the third-largest wetland in Mexico. However, ranching, fires, clandestine logging and pollution have taken a toll on both the mangroves and water quality. Locals cleared mangroves here in spite of a 2007 wildlife law that banned removal, refilling, transplanting or any other activity affecting the integrity of the ecosystem’s water flow.

More:
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/meet-the-forest-fishers-restoring-mangroves-and-livelihoods-in-mexico/

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