Mexico’s Pacific coast boasts a rich array of diversity from rocky, cactus-lined cliffs to expansive tropical jungle, isolated beaches, small mountains and lush lagoon systems. It is said to have the same latitude as the Hawaiian islands with a rainy season that lasts only four or five months of the year from July to late October.

The forests of the Costalegre are among the richest tropical dry forests in the world, supporting more than 700 species of vertebrates and almost 1,200 species of plants. One of the most threatened ecosystems in the world also thrives here in this delicately balanced chain of life: the mangroves that exist within the lagoons, rivers and streams throughout the Costalegre.

Coastal mangroves, like the 52 acres in La Manzanilla and small system located on the Boca de Iguanas development terrain, are part of a complex and fragile ecosystem that connect terrestrial and marine species in a nurturing web of life. A plethora of plant, insect, bird, mammal and reptilian species live in the waters surrounding healthy mangroves and find a safe haven among their woven branches. The deep and acidic, moist soil underlying the mangroves are rich and very productive. Large communities of invertebrates feed on the organic matter deposited at the base of mangroves.

Mangrove trees are unique in their ability to remove excess salt from the water in which they thrive, enabling them to live their entire lives in a salt water environment, such as the beach location of the Boca de Iguanas project. Because they grow so close together, their roots and branches become large nets that work as filters letting water flow but stopping harmful sediments that damage reefs. Thus, they help protect the coastline from erosion, storm damage, and wave action while providing a sheltered habitat for crocodiles, herons, key nursery areas for fishes and other wildlife.

But mangrove habitats around the world are being destroyed as infrastructure from tourism encroaches on swampy land. Commercial shrimp farming destroys many due to expansion of cultivation ponds which dry waterways and lagoons. One of the mandates of the Boca de Iguanas project is to work in conjunction with ecological conservation groups to investigate and study the impact on these delicate ecosystems and work out solutions to keep them thriving. As an eco-hotel, the project hopes to use the small mangrove system onsite as an enclosed environment to research plausible sustainable solutions that can be introduced around the world to other endangered systems.

The devastation of the mangroves wrecks havoc on vital and thriving aquatic forest ecosystems that support abundant food chains from coastal to reef life, and affects many communities, both animal and human.

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