Mexico

Overview

Mexico has a history of environmental ups and downs. For more on Mexico’s environmental past, please see the previous summary by the Resource Renewal Institute. With the election of Vicente Fox Quesada in 2000, a new era of environmental awareness came to Mexico. The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), also known as SEMARNAT, was enlisted “to create a State environmental protection policy reversing the tendencies of ecological deterioration and establishing the basis for sustainable development in the country.”

SEMARNAT has set out a plan, the National Program of Environment and Natural Resources 2001 – 2006 to deal with continuing environmental degradation and balance it with the growing understanding of environmental awareness and the recognition of the intertwined relationship of society, economics and the environment.

Mexico has embraced a more advanced way of thinking about environmental issues in recent years. It will be some time before we can see the effects of these plans as few short-term goals have been set, but Mexico’s newly adopted philosophy has the potential to be very productive and beneficial to its people. Read short messages from President Fox and from the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources.

The Vision of the Secretariat
A country where everybody has a deep and sincere concern for caring and preserving all those resources that nature provides to our country, reconciling the human temper with the fragile balance of other living beings and their environment to achieve a sustainable development.

Recent News

The 2001-2006 plan is perhaps the most significant update since RRI's last Mexico summary was written in 1999. The plan lays out six stages of new environmental policy (taken from the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources)

Integrality: the new environmental policy goes beyond a merely ecological approach and considers that natural resources should be managed as a whole and in a coordinated manner.

Commitments of Federal Government sectors: the commitment to sustainable development is the common task of several Federal Government secretariats and institutions that are responsible for various sectors of the economy.

New management: the new policy means a change in the strategic approach to environmental management, promotion of a new federalism, encouraging those that use the environment to conduct themselves appropriately by introducing clear, efficient and up-to-date regulations, and providing incentives to promote efficient environmental performance.

Assessment of natural resources: the new environmental policy will encourage users of natural resources and environmental services to recognize their economic and social value and this will result in them being used rationally.

Observance of the law and the fight against environmental impunity: under the new environmental policy, the law will be enforced without exception and no stone will be left unturned in the fight against environmental crime and impunity.

Social involvement and accountability: members of the public will have access to information so that they may be aware of the environment in which they live and how it affects their welfare.
For more information on these goals, see the Goals page on the SEMARNAT site.

SEMARNAT has a major challenge in bringing together human development and nature. To do so, it perceives the following actions as critical:

1. Harmonize the territorial growth and distribution of population with the sustainable development requirements to improve the quality of life of Mexican people and encourage the balance among the regions of the country with the participation of government and civil society.
2. Create an ecological culture considering the care for the environment and the decision making at all levels and sectors.
3. Strengthen scientific and technological research, in order for it to let us understand better ecological processes.
4. Favor sociocultural conditions allowing us to have environmental knowledge and develop abilities, capabilities and values to understand the effects of the transforming action of man in the natural environment. Create new ways of relationship with the environment and encourage productive and consumption sustainable processes.
5. Achieve the protection and preservation of the more important ecosystems of the country and their biological diversity, specially those species subject to any protection category.
6. Stop and revert water, air and soil pollution.
7. Stop and revert erosion processes and increase reforestation.

Another major change in Mexico’s environmental policy is that the fourteen federal government secretariats now include sustainable development in their programs. These agencies are responsible for various aspects of social and economic policies and must now incorporate environmental consideration into their work.

Several strategies have also been laid out to reach the desired goals.

Education plays an important role in meeting the objectives and goals of this Program. In this area, the development of collective habits for caring for and respecting our environment is considered as a priority, for which the government, leading by example, will establish guidelines for the everyday behavior of companies, industries, communities and individuals.
—Víctor Lichtinger
Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources

The redefining of SEMARNAT has been instrumental in reshaping Mexico’s environmental policy. It has several main objectives from which long-term goals and strategies have been derived (refer to SEMARNAT’s web site):

• To succeed in protecting and conserving the ecosystems, species and genes most threatened within the country.
• To stop and reverse pollution of water, air and soil.
• To stop and reverse the erosion and deforestation processes.
• To guarantee the inclusion of the environmental variable as a State policy within the national life activities (government, companies, society).
• To promote the sustainable use of natural resources (including an efficient use of water and electric power).
• To promote a comprehensive and decentralized environmental management.
• To encourage the development and adoption of productive processes and clean technologies.
• To increase and strengthen social participation and access to information on environmental and conservation policies and programs.
• To develop and encourage applied research to support the activities of the Sector.
• To promote processes of education, training and communication to preserve the ecological balance, environmental protection and sustainable exploitation of natural resources.
• To facilitate a comprehensive handling of the environmental policy and the natural resources to consolidate a sustainable development.
• To manage and preserve national waters with the participation of society to achieve a sustainable use of water.

In developing its strategy for the future, Mexico has looked inward to decide on the type of country it wants to be. As stated by SEMARNAT, several goals have been set to take the necessary steps, including the following. (A complete list can be found on the SEMARNAT site.)

• The economic development model is based in the sustainable principle, particularly generating life expectations for the Mexican people living in abject poverty levels.
• We observe the environmental law and we fight against impunity without exceptions.
• We have sound consultation and social involvement mechanisms in the planning and assessment processes regarding natural resources and the environment .
• The Mexican people, and particularly the young people, have educational environmental training participating widely in the protection of our natural heritage.
• We have an ecological culture considering the care for the environment in the decision making at all levels and in all sectors.
• We encourage scientific research and technological innovation to support both sustainable development of the country and implementation of productive processes and clean technologies, as well as decision making.

To reach the goals set, Mexico has had to change its way of thinking. In general, the government is looking to not just understand the environmental issues that face them, but to incorporate long-range environmental concerns into their daily governing activities. By not singling out environmentalism as s topic unto itself, but rather something that is core to everything else, the government can understand how decisions in all areas affect the environment and vice versa. This is a critical philosophical change the will allow Mexico to change its environmental ways as it claims it wants to do. Of course, the ease of implementation and the ultimate success of these efforts won’t be seen for quite some time.

More online resources

Visit the Mexico links page to find out more about the green plan of Mexico, and review the RRI archives for additional information.