An integral component of Invert’s Mexican carbon removal projects, developed in partnership with The Earth Lab and stewarded by the traditional ejido landowners, is the maintenance of the forest cover ensuring the protection of habitat, natural resources, and ecosystems, while enabling the continued provision of timber and non-timber forest products and enabling socio-economic stability for the ejidos.
The project sites are located within the Sian Ka’an-Balam Kaax ecological corridor and neighbor the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, one of the last continuous vegetation masses in North America. The state of Quintana Roo is composed of different ecosystems and the Mayan jungles have continuous forest stands that are one of the most important tropical evergreen forests in Mexico. The importance of this region lies in the role it plays as part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor that links the two largest reserves of the Yucatán Peninsula, Sian Ka’an, and Calakmul.
The original settlers to the area were the Yucatec Maya who made first contact with the Spanish when Christopher Columbus and his team came across on a large trading canoe off Honduras in 1502. In 1511, Spanish survivors of the shipwrecked caravel Santa María de la Barca sought refuge among native groups along the eastern coast of the peninsula and the region was later conquered by the Spanish conquistadors after a decades-long battle that devastated the indigenous Maya in the region.
From 1847 to 1901, the Ejido Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Ejido X-Hazil y Anexos communities were the main locations for the Guerra de Castas or the Caste War of Yucatán conflict which saw the revolt of the native Maya people of the Yucatán Peninsula against Hispanic populations, called Yucatecos. The conflict was sparked by the increased practice of land alienation, forcing much of the Maya peasantry to work as indebted laborers on large estates also known as haciendas. This had a dramatic effect on the Maya and precipitated the war.
In the early 1900s, Mayan settlers sought refuge in the forest as it provided food timber and Chicozapote tree gum which was in high demand. Later on, these settlers were recognized as the official landowners.
In the 1950s the area was a part of a timber concession to a multinational company until the 1980s when the ejidos regained full control of their forests. Today the area is under pressure from land developers who are attracted to the region’s tourism and industrial potential.
Currently, there is a renewed focus to restore and protect the land for future generations. Through the Bonos Jaguar del Mayab Portfolio projects, the local community is able to protect and safeguard regional biodiversity helping a diverse range of species survive and thrive for the next 100 years.
