Amigos de Sian Ka’an

Amigos de Sian Ka’an is an NGO that began in 1986 as support for the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula (“About Us”). Unlike other NGOs that work in the area, Amigos de Sian Ka’an is a local organization. Since their conception, the organization has expanded its goals to include other environmental projects on the eastern Yucatán, such as establishing protected areas, cleaning up pollution, and ecosystem research and exploration (Hydroheart). 

The Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve itself is home to a variety of wildlife and includes a range of landscapes, including tropical forests, underground rivers and wetlands, as well as a piece of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in the Caribbean Sea (UNESCO). Though the NGO has expanded, they still base their work around local communities, especially when it comes to education about the environment (Hydroheart). This is important because local people are often left out of conversations about the fate of the land they live on, with precedence given to the ideas of large corporations who want to develop it for tourism purposes (Ávila-García, Sánchez, Furio 52). Conservation efforts, however, have come under scrutiny for prioritizing the environment over any people who might live there, though it is difficult to tell if Amigos de Sian Ka’an play a part in this (Ávila-García, Sánchez, Furio 60-61). 

In Mexico especially, the development of a booming tourism industry has meant the destruction of the natural environment in the name of real estate development and profit (Ávila-García, Sánchez, Furio 51). The Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, and the Amigos de Sian Ka’an that support it, make sure that cannot happen to the Reserve’s diverse ecosystems. The coast of the Yucatán, and specifically Cancún, was one of the first designated locations for tourism development in the 1970s, and the area has grown into an extremely popular location for American vacationers (Wilson 37-38). Latin America has long struggled with powerful people and institutions that do not have its best interests in mind. Amigos de Sian Ka’an wants to keep undeveloped land out of the hands of those who would continue to develop it without care for the environment. By researching the ecosystems, promoting conservation, and offering education, Amigos de Sian Ka’an protects the delicate natural environment of the Yucatán from irreversible damage (Hydroheart).  

Sources

Amigos de Sian Ka’an. “About Us.” Accessed February 25, 2022. https://www.amigosdesiankaan.org/about.  

Ávila-García, Patricia, Eduardo Luna Sánchez, and Victoria J. Furio. “The Environmentalism of the Rich and the Privatization of Nature: High-End Tourism on the Mexican Coast.” Latin American Perspectives 39, no. 6 (November 2012): 51-67. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41702293. 

Hydroheart. “Amigos de Sian Ka’an.” Accessed February 25, 2022. https://hydroheart.org/project/amigos-de-sian-kaan/.  

UNESCO. “Sian Ka’an.” World Heritage Centre. Accessed February 25, 2022. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/410/. 

Wilson, Tamar Diana. “Economic and Social Impacts of Tourism in Mexico.” Latin American Perspectives 53, no. 3 (May 2008): 37-52. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27648096.