Climate Change adaptation actions

Located in eastern Chiapas State, the Lacandon Jungle is the largest reserve of rainforest in the region and one of the significant ecological areas of Mexico and Mesoamerica. It contains the greatest biodiversity in the tropics, Mexico, and North America.

Since 2008 and as part of an agreement, UANL has collaborated with the nonprofit organization Natura and Mexican Ecosystems (NATURA) in the Preservation and Sustainable Development of the Lacandon Jungle program, which was initially implemented 25 years ago. NATURA is operated by renowned specialists of natural environment studies and preservation.

This cooperation between NATURA and UANL helps protect more than 320,000 hectares of rainforest storing over 29 million metric tons of CO2, which represents more than 106 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent and 77 million metric tons of oxygen released to the atmosphere.

Furthermore, the Lacandon Jungle is considered a global hotspot of great biodiversity because it holds 28.4 percent of the Mexican mammal species, 31.8 percent of birds, 11.7 percent of reptiles, 8.8 percent of amphibians, and 14.4 percent of the existing fresh water fish. Therefore, the preservation actions by NATURA and UANL are critical to protect the vast flora and fauna of this remarkable natural environment.

Highly preservative rainforests are called water factories, playing a strategic role in the survival of living beings. The Lacandon Jungle is located in the Grijalva-Usumacinta hydrological region, the largest water factory of Mexico and the seventh largest worldwide, with an extension of 11,500,700 hectares and a mean annual runoff of 85 billion cubic meters, which is 30 percent of the total surface water resources in the country.

Due to the significance of the Preservation and Sustainable Development of the Lacandon Jungle program, it has been attributed strategic importance for its many positive effects on climate change across the country and the planet.