ON SETTLING ON THE YUCATAN'S NORTHWESTERN COAST

This is Naturalist Jim Conrad, producer of the "Notes on the Plants, Animals & Ecology of the Northern Yucatan
Peninsula Website" at  http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/

I write to express concern about exploding real-estate development on the Yucatan's northwestern coast. This
development is destroying critical habitat in an especially biological important part of the world.

Ever since Darwin studied in the Galapagos it's been recognized that unique species evolve on islands. Though
geographically the Yucatan is a peninsula, ecologically it is an island. It is an island because on the
west, north and east it is surrounded by the sea. To the south, organisms adapted to the Yucatan's arid
environment are isolated from other organisms of their kind by a very different ecosystem, one dependent on
much higher rainfall. Unique plants and animals have evolved in the northern Yucatan because -- as if they
were on an island -- for eons they have been genetically isolated from other similar populations.

Moreover, because northwestern Yucatan is the driest part of the peninsula, by far the greatest numbers of
unique species live exactly there.

In ecology, an "endemic" species is one that in the whole world is found naturally only in a very limited area. This
makes an endemic species not only very special but also much more vulnerable to extinction than more
widely distributed species. Nearly 10% of the Yucatan's plant species are endemics. For example, the Yucatan
is home to 14 endemic cactus species, and the northern Yucatan is home to ten of them. A similar situation
exists for other kinds of organisms.

In other words, the "scrub" along northwestern Yucatan's coast -- though it may look barren to northern eyes --
is a unique and fragile ecosystem.

Unfortunately, real estate development is most active in this "scrub" area. When the land's surface is "cleaned
of scrub," profound ecological damage is committed.

Even more disheartening than the gradual conversion of one small lot of "scrub" to dreamhome sandy backyard
after another is the 2,200-acre Flamingo Lakes Golf & Country Club Resort being planned near Telchac
Puerto on the northwestern coast. That development will absolutely destroy a huge swath of important cactus
ecosystem, plus runoff from its 18-hole Championship golf course will drain into the "flamingo lake" beside it,
from which it takes its name. Flamingos do overwinter in that lake. And think of all the garbage the resort will
generate.

The forces behind this development are far beyond my understanding or ability to do anything about. I do hope,
however, that individuals who have their mind set on doing their part to "develop" the Yucatan's
northwestern coast will keep this in mind:

You are participating in a tragic degradation of a beautiful and important ecosystem.
Jim Conrad
Home                  Eco Living Yucatan           Ecology House          Hammocks        Bicycle Yucatan
A poem written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
called “Requiem,” which has these
closing lines:
When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon ,
“It is done.”
People did not like it here.