Kategorie: News
Cenotes, unique primeval forests and cultural treasures of the Mayas in danger
The Tren Maya, with its planned 1,550 kilometres of railway line, is by far the most expensive infrastructure project in Mexico in recent decades. The construction project is budgeted at almost 8.5 billion euros. The train is scheduled to run from 2024 on a 40-metre-wide track with a maximum speed of 160 km/h. The Yucatán peninsula is to be virtually circumnavigated in the process. Part of it is to run on existing railway lines, but most of it would be a new construction. A total of seven sections are planned, but none of the sub-projects has been completed yet. The train starts in Palenque (Chiapas). After about 200 kilometres, the line splits into a western and eastern route from Escárcega (Campeche), both meeting in Cancún (Quintana Roo).
Report by Herbert Gfrörer and Dirk Penzel
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many train lines were built through the country. Until the second half of the 20th century, rail was a popular and emerging method of travel until it declined due to competition from other modes of transport. Now there is a push to revive train travel. These trains will help locals commute to work and bring tourists to new communities. It is hoped that air pollution will be reduced if more people travel by train instead of car.
The flagship project for all new train lines is the Tren Maya. Covering a distance of just over 1,550 kilometres, it is to run in a large loop between Cancun and Palenque, Chiapas. Passengers and freight are to be transported to the Yucatán peninsula. It is supposed to enable tourism in remote areas and create many new jobs to boost economic growth in the region. The theory sounds pretty good.
Major destruction feared
Environmentalists criticise the project for polluting groundwater supplies, disturbing or even destroying cultural sites of indigenous peoples, and destroying irreplaceable nature reserves and the wildlife living there. A total of probably twenty-three nature conservation areas are affected by the construction activities, including UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Beneath the jungle of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula are some of the most beautiful cenotes in the world. The peninsula was originally a coral reef exposed to the atmosphere by fluctuations in sea level during various ice ages. Acidic precipitation penetrated the porous limestone, dissolving the rocks and forming solution caves. This process created stalagmites, stalactites and columns. After the ice ages, these caves filled with water so that the formations could no longer change and solidified over time.
Some of the cave ceilings collapsed and formed cenotes. These flooded caves have always been of great importance to the region. The cenotes are important sources of fresh water, and the Maya, who considered them sacred, built near them and used some of them as sacrificial sites. Archaeologists have found artefacts including jewellery, pots, clothing, sculptures and human and animal bones.
Theory and reality collide
The Mexican government has started to build a train corridor through the jungle; an ill-conceived and poorly planned project. Among other things, it has led to the expropriation of Mayan land and has already destroyed irreplaceable natural resources of the country. Not inconsiderable parts of the jungle are being cleared and pillars are being sunk into these fantastic cave systems - arguably the longest in the world - threatening their collapse. This could completely destroy the caves and also disrupt the vital flow of fresh groundwater to the coastal reefs of the Mesoamerican barrier reef system.
As mentioned earlier, in theory, the Tren Maya project could be a great idea. Imagine a modern high-speed train "hovering" over the jungle. It would take tourists from Cancun airport south to Tulum. Along the coast with a breathtaking view of the turquoise water. The train could also travel west to Merida, along the dense, lush jungle. What a wonderful way to see and experience the Yucatán Peninsula!
None of this seems to be the reality of the Tren Maya. The first Caribbean section of the project will only run from Playa del Carmen to Tulum. A stretch of road that is already quite well developed. The highway is spacious and uncongested, and the journey takes about forty minutes. The ground-level train will offer no view at all. One could say it would be a benefit for the environment to shift traffic from road to rail, if it weren't for the next reality shock: ancient diesel locomotives, which the government must have recently bought in Kenya, are to serve the route (compare this with the wonderful advertising picture of the Tren Maya at the beginning of the article). Wasn't there something about air pollution? That's right, one of the aims of the project is to reduce air pollution by using ultra-modern trains...
Yucatán, natural paradise and important tourist destination
Today, the Yucatán Peninsula has become a major tourist destination known as the Riviera Maya. Visitors come from all over the world to enjoy Mexico's Caribbean beaches and to swim in the cenotes. Many of the beaches are used by sea turtles for nesting. The jungles of Yucatán are home to jaguars, monkeys, wild boar, deer and many species of birds. Unfortunately, this habitat is disappearing as the region develops, putting much of the wildlife at risk. The Mexican agouti, for example, is a rodent species that is common in the area but is threatened with extinction.
The planned route of the Tren Mayo also passes right by the well-known bat cave near Calakmul. It is feared that the train would drive away the animals that eat tons of mosquitoes and other insects every night, keeping the ecosystem in balance. One example of many of how the project could change nature.
Marine life in the cenotes is limited, but it is possible to encounter catfish, mollies and tetras. These fish live in the open water areas. Visitors to the caves can also see fish without eyes, an adaptation to life in complete darkness. The limestone rocks and mangrove bushes around the openings of the cenotes are the perfect habitat for a wide variety of animals.
Cave diving is one of the main tourist activities here locally, and at the current time the train route is supposed to go directly through the most famous dive site: the Dos Ojos Ecopark.
Gigantic damage to the environment
Apart from the diving, the possible collapse of the caves will fundamentally and irreversibly disrupt the water table. There are no surface streams or rivers in this region of Mexico, and the underground river caves are the only source of precious and vital fresh water.
The freshwater flows from the vast jungle through the cave systems to the reef, a flow that is essential for the health and sustenance of the coastal seas. The groundwater flow that passes through coastal estuaries creates important habitats for juvenile fish. Disturbance of this flow can destroy habitats, which is likely to lead to a decline in fish populations, which in turn leads to coral die-off, which in turn leads to unhealthy oceans and dead reefs. It's all connected.
Straight through Dos Ojos Park
The original route, which ran south along the only road on the peninsula, has unfortunately been changed to take the train directly through Dos Ojos Park, where it passes over a thin layer of limestone above the region's fragile cave systems. The train will pass within 1,000 feet of a cenote dive site called Dreamgate and could cause Sac Actún, one of the largest flooded caves in the world, to collapse. This construction could cause permanent damage to the environment, Mayan villages, archaeological sites and the caves we find so fascinating and love to dive.
It is fairly certain that the construction and operation of the Tren Maya will result in significant pollution that would affect the coral reefs off the coast. Mexico's National Science and Technology Council reported back in 2019 that the train line would endanger at least 10 nature reserves, 1,300 archaeological sites and more than 143,000 Mayan Indians living in the region.
Apart from the environmental damage, many experts doubt that a high-speed train travelling over limestone is safe. According to the investigating geologists, it is feared that the regional conditions could not withstand the weight of a train. This danger could lead to the failure of the project, stupidly only after the irreversible environmental damage has occurred.
The Tren Maya project unfortunately has so many problem areas with the current planning that it could do more harm than good. The best alternative at the moment seems to be to return the railway line to its original route along the existing motorway. Speleologists, including Mexican Cave Studies, believe that moving the rail line 7 to 8 miles from the coast would drastically minimise the collapse of many caves. The area near the highway is already developed, but even then the Tren Maya project will still cause environmental damage, but much less.
Help make the petition a success
Divers, scientists, archaeologists and activists are urging the Mexican government to slow down the project and take more time to consider all environmental concerns.
Those who wish to support this can find a petition at
www.change.org/p/lopezobrador-no-al-tren-maya
Please sign the petition, and join us in hoping that the outcome of the petition does not fall on deaf ears.