Greenpeace has warned of the irreversible environmental damage that the $65 million Royal Beach Club project will cause in Cozumel. The project is currently undergoing environmental assessment by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).
The environmental organization points out that this beach club aims to concentrate 1.4 million tourists annually on just 17 hectares of beach in Cozumel, “a level of human pressure that the reefs and mangroves will hardly be able to withstand.”
They denounce that this predatory tourism model seeks to privatize the last public beach in the area, which will displace wildlife and destroy coastal forests protected by law.
They summarize the risks to the island’s future in three key points:
The company admits in its own study that it will suffer “permanent, irreversible, cumulative, and synergistic” impacts, which turns the supposed sustainability into a mere administrative formality.
There will be a collapse due to overcrowding, as the plan is to receive 1.4 million visitors annually in just 17 hectares, a massive human pressure on reefs and coastlines already facing critical ecological stress.
The privatization of this space will cause, in addition to ecological damage, the risk of losing access to the last public beach in the area, turning it into an exclusive enclave for cruise ship tourists, as local communities denounce.
“Tourism cannot continue advancing by destroying jungles, mangroves, and reefs. Cozumel is not a theme park: it is living territory. From the Mexico to the Cry of ¡Selva! campaign, we demand that this project be rejected,” the organization adds.
Source: eleconomista
