Photograph of pigs in the corral of a farm (Photo: EFE)
Coinciding with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Greenpeace Mexico insisted this Thursday on prohibiting the installation and expansion of pig farms in the Yucatán peninsula.
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Greenpeace celebrated that AMLO said in his morning press conference that he will issue a decree to ban pig farms that contaminate aquifers.
“In the case of farms, there is already a study by the Ministry of the Environment. A proposal is going to be made and decrees are going to be issued for the care of water, to avoid contamination, already preventing farms from being installed in places where it has been shown that aquifers are contaminated. This work is being done in coordination with the government of Yucatan”
“From Greenpeace Mexico we salute the declarations of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to prohibit pig farms in Yucatán,” said the environmental organization in a public statement.
Likewise, he observed that it is necessary for all those pig farms that are illegal and do not comply with current regulations to close definitively.
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“The installation of these pig mega-farms exerts a strong pressure on the ecosystems of Mexico, especially in a priority site for the conservation of biodiversity such as the Yucatan peninsula, where the increase of mega-farms is increasingly rapid and disorderly” he warned.
The organization explained that this is because the contaminated water seeps into the aquifer, one of the most important water sources nationally and internationally and through which the region is supplied, including local populations.
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Greenpeace Mexico recalled that since 2020 it warned, in its report “Meat that is consuming the planet, what is behind the pork industry in the Yucatan Peninsula”, that only 22 of 257 farms operate with the correct environmental impact statement (MIA ) in southeastern Mexico.
Pig farms in Yucatan (Photo: Greenpeace Mexico)
This means “that a little more than 90% of pig farms operate illegally,” he said.
In addition, he pointed out that 43 of these pig farms are located in four Protected Natural Areas, including the Ring of Cenotes, which is considered a RAMSAR site of relevance for containing wetlands of international importance.
He added that 122 of these farms (47%) are in regions considered priority attention sites for biodiversity conservation.
Of this number, there are currently 20 farms in conservation sites and 102 in restoration sites.
(Photo: special)
Greenpeace pointed out that this industry also devastates the jungle because 45% of pig activities in the Yucatan peninsula take place in the dry forest.
“It is estimated that in the peninsula, about 11,000 hectares of forest have been potentially deforested. This in turn causes the accelerated loss of biodiversity of endemic and endangered species such as the jaguar and many others.
Finally, Greenpeace emphasized that they have been fighting for more than four years together with organizations such as Indignación AC, Ka’́anan Ts’́onot (Guardians of the cenotes), Esperanza de Sitilpech, Kanan Human Rights and other international organizations.
“We demand that this devastation be stopped and mega hog farms banned as mentioned by the president today in his morning conference,” the organization concluded.
With information from the EFE agency.