Our goal: This project will establish Pez Maya, a biological station and community education center, as an emerging hub of conservation research, environmental education, ecotourism, and global knowledge exchange. Pez Maya will create social and economic conditions that support conservation and make spaces and opportunities for conservation research and initiatives focused on the Yucatan Peninsula. Where the sky is born (Sian Ka'an in Mayan) and the waters coming from the Mayan Jungle and wetlands find each other to flow into the Caribbean Sea. Pez Maya is a melting pot of ecosystems and wildlife on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. But this paradise is threatened by deforestation, climate change, and pollution. Extensive, long-term conservation of the 17 unique local ecosystems is an urgent need.
We are working with Amigos de Sian Ka’an, an established Mexican NGO to turn this one-of-a-kind biological station into a regional nexus for conservation. Community development will protect critical ecosystems: the Mesoamerican reef, which protects the coastline and provides food security to local people, the Maya Forest, largest tropical forest in Mesoamerica, and mangrove forests, providing $11.4B of ecosystem services for protecting the shore.
Pez Maya biological station will enable groundbreaking innovation in the conservation sphere by bringing students, researchers, NGOs, governments, and local people together to produce unprecedented research and knowledge exchange.
The project will promote ecotourism as a sustainable way to generate income and will produce environmental education programs for local Mayan communities, enabling expansive community-led conservation action.