Campeche, one of three states on the Yucatán Peninsula, is one of the world’s so-called biodiversity hotspots and loses tens of thousands of hectares of natural forest every year, mostly through illegal logging. The areas we are restoring there are tropical dry forests, one of the most threatened forest ecosystems in the world. In 2018 alone, Campeche lost about 40,000 hectares of natural forest and as much as 53,000 hectares in 2019 (see Global Forest Watch https://bit.ly/3cQuO3m). The 2019 loss alone is equivalent to 12.5 million tons of sequestered carbon dioxide (CO2).
Global Forest Watch also shows that Campeche lost 779,000 hectares of trees between 2001 and 2020, representing a 17% decline in tree cover since 2000 and 295 million tons of CO₂ emissions.
Of all Mexican states, the state of Campeche suffered the greatest forest loss between 2001 and 2020 (see https://gfw.global/2WpAc7b).
So our work is more important than ever: Plant-for-the-Planet planted a good 4,000 hectares with 6.2 million trees in the Mexican state of Campeche alone between 2015 and 2020.
The WEF Global Risk Report 2020 identifies Latin America and the Caribbean, where the Yucatán Peninsula is located, as regions that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. This is due to a combination of factors including the lack of an effective water management plan, rampant deforestation, and insufficient financial resources to put in place a package of measures to address the impacts of the climate crisis. Between 2001 and 2019, 186,000 hectares of trees were lost in Campeche State due to heavy rains and hurricanes alone. That’s why in 2013, the nonprofit Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation, through its sister nonprofit Plant-for-the-Planet A.C., decided to begin reforestation efforts in the state of Campeche, on the Yucatan Peninsula.
