Mexico Is Letting an Oil Company Destroy Protected Mangroves for an $8 Billion Oil Refinery

Mexico's president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ordered state-owned oil company, Pemex, to build an $8 billion oil refinery. So, the company has followed orders and razed protected mangrove trees to clear way for the controversial project, according to Quartz. Satellite images posted on Quartz show the cleared land to accommodate the construction.
Mangrove forests, which straddle land and sea, provide enormous environmental benefits. Not only do the sequester carbon, pulling greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere, they reduce flooding and erosion from storms, serve as nurseries for fish and filter pollutants from water. Research shows that, tree-for-tree, mangroves trap three to five times more carbon than rainforests can.
Pemex's Dos Bocas refinery site. Planet Labs / Quartz
Lopez Obrador approved the project in Tabasco, his home state, to revive the state-owned oil giant, which has suffered from dysfunction recently. Shortly after the president approved the project, a third party uprooted large swatches of mangroves, even though they are protected and vital to Mexico's economy, according to Quartz.
The complex ecosystems the trees create provide almost 6 percent of Mexico's GDP, according to the University of California, San Diego, as Quartz reported. While the mangroves are supposed to be protected, the satellite imagery shows that they continue to be felled to make way for roads. Pemex, or a third-party, defied a government order by cutting down the mangroves and is now asking for permission to raze more so it can build a bridge.
The actions have environmental advocates worried about Mexico's commitment to a sustainable future, especially since the government canceled a $700,000 fine for a company accused of destroying thousands of acres of mangroves.
"The administration promotes an oil refinery, and to build it destroys threatened mangroves even though Mexico is part of the Paris accords," Alejandra Rabasa, an environmental lawyer in Mexico City, said to Sierra Club.
Gustavo Alanis-Ortega, president of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, told Quartz that there should be an investigation into Pemex's role in the deforestation, "If they are indeed breaking the law [at Dos Bocas], this shows that there is no real commitment to legality and the rule of law" in Lopez Obrador's government,
The area where the deforestation has taken place is home to many endangered animals, including a jaguarundi wild cat, and protected species of snakes, iguanas and birds, as Reuters reported. Futhermore, Pemex executives actually proposed that the area be made into a protected nature preserve about a decade ago, according to Reuters.
Now, a little over a year into office, Lopez Obrador seems to be following in the footsteps of the presidents of other large countries in the Americas, mainly President Trump and President Bolsanaro in Brazil, by reversing environmental progress. He has put the kibosh on renewable energy projects, tried to cut subsidies to renewable energy companies, and usurped a government plan to bolster investments in green infrastructure, according to Quartz.
"Environmental issues are completely relegated—they don't figure in this administration's agenda," Alanis-Ortega told Quartz.
Meanwhile, the economic benefit of the Pemex refinery is questionable, since economists say it would be more cost effective to import oil than to build this refinery. Furthermore, mangroves have a proven economic benefit. According to Mongabay, researchers estimate that mangroves provide "ecosystem services" equal to $194,000 per hectare annually. Multiplied by their global span, that means the world's mangroves provide around $2.7 trillion in services every year.
Mangroves also store much more carbon than scientists had previously thought, according to a study by 20 researchers around the world published in Environmental Research Letters.
"Protecting, enhancing and restoring natural carbon sinks must become political priorities," Jonathan Sanderman of the Woods Hole Research Center and lead author of the study said as Mongabay reported. "Mangrove forests can play an important role in carbon removals because they are among the most carbon-dense ecosystems in the world, and if kept undisturbed, mangrove forest soils act as long-term carbon sinks."
As Quartz reported, Mexico prioritized protecting its mangrove forests as part of Paris climate agreement commitments. Mexico has the fourth-largest area of mangroves in the world. However, mangrove deforestation is rampant across Mexico, and, according to the University of California, San Diego at the current rate, the country may lose half its remaining mangroves in 50 years.
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Comparing rime ice and glaze ice shows how each changes the texture of the blade. Gao, Liu and Hu, 2021, CC BY-ND
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While traditional investment in the ocean technology sector has been tentative, growth in Israeli maritime innovations has been exponential in the last few years, and environmental concern has come to the forefront.
theDOCK aims to innovate the Israeli maritime sector. Pexels
<p>The UN hopes that new investments in ocean science and technology will help turn the tide for the oceans. As such, this year kicked off the <a href="https://www.oceandecade.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)</a> to galvanize massive support for the blue economy.</p><p>According to the World Bank, the blue economy is the "sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem," <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019338255#b0245" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Science Direct</a> reported. It represents this new sector for investments and innovations that work in tandem with the oceans rather than in exploitation of them.</p><p>As recently as Aug. 2020, <a href="https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/esg-investors-slow-make-waves-25tn-ocean-economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> noted that ESG Investors, those looking to invest in opportunities that have a positive impact in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, have been interested in "blue finance" but slow to invest.</p><p>"It is a hugely under-invested economic opportunity that is crucial to the way we have to address living on one planet," Simon Dent, director of blue investments at Mirova Natural Capital, told Reuters.</p><p>Even with slow investment, the blue economy is still expected to expand at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by 2030, Reuters reported. It already contributes $2.5tn a year in economic output, the report noted.</p><p>Current, upward <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/-innovation-blue-economy-2646147405.html" target="_self">shifts in blue economy investments are being driven by innovation</a>, a trend the UN hopes will continue globally for the benefit of all oceans and people.</p><p>In Israel, this push has successfully translated into investment in and innovation of global ports, shipping, logistics and offshore sectors. The "Startup Nation," as Israel is often called, has seen its maritime tech ecosystem grow "significantly" in recent years and expects that growth to "accelerate dramatically," <a href="https://itrade.gov.il/belgium-english/how-israel-is-becoming-a-port-of-call-for-maritime-innovation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iTrade</a> reported.</p><p>Driving this wave of momentum has been rising Israeli venture capital hub <a href="https://www.thedockinnovation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">theDOCK</a>. Founded by Israeli Navy veterans in 2017, theDOCK works with early-stage companies in the maritime space to bring their solutions to market. The hub's pioneering efforts ignited Israel's maritime technology sector, and now, with their new fund, theDOCK is motivating these high-tech solutions to also address ESG criteria.</p><p>"While ESG has always been on theDOCK's agenda, this theme has become even more of a priority," Nir Gartzman, theDOCK's managing partner, told EcoWatch. "80 percent of the startups in our portfolio (for theDOCK's Navigator II fund) will have a primary or secondary contribution to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria."</p><p>In a company presentation, theDOCK called contribution to the ESG agenda a "hot discussion topic" for traditional players in the space and their boards, many of whom are looking to adopt new technologies with a positive impact on the planet. The focus is on reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment, the presentation outlines. As such, theDOCK also explicitly screens candidate investments by ESG criteria as well.</p><p>Within the maritime space, environmental innovations could include measures like increased fuel and energy efficiency, better monitoring of potential pollution sources, improved waste and air emissions management and processing of marine debris/trash into reusable materials, theDOCK's presentation noted.</p>theDOCK team includes (left to right) Michal Hendel-Sufa, Head of Alliances, Noa Schuman, CMO, Nir Gartzman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, and Hannan Carmeli, Co-Founder & Managing Partner. Dudu Koren
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