April 12, 2021

 

Mexico urged to respect rights of indigenous community in regards to industrial pig operations

 

 

The Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace Mexico have submitted a formal request this month urging the Mexican government to respect the sovereign right of indigenous communities and to basic human rights, in regards to the operation of industrial pig farms in the states of Yucatán, Campeche and Quintana Roo.

 

The groups also asked that the government agrees to a request from the Mayan peoples for a moratorium on all approvals of new industrial pig farms and expansions until the issues of the rights of Mayans and ongoing damage to air and water quality, biodiversity and human health are resolved.

 

The request is in support of a group of 21 Mayan communities that filed a regional complaint with a series of concerns regarding the government's failure to consult indigenous groups before approving industrial pig farms in the region.

 

The complaint was prepared and filed by the human rights organisation Indignación.

 

"The Mexican government's unilateral approval of industrial pig farming in indigenous territory ignored the rights and health of local communities," said Alejandro Olivera, the Mexico representative of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The plants and animals of the Mayan jungle make up one of the world's most stunning biodiversity hotspots. The unfettered growth of destructive factory farms is accelerating the region's loss of wildlife and helping to fuel the global extinction crisis."

 

The Mayan jungle of the Yucatán Peninsula provides numerous plant and animal resources for food and medicine. It also supplies critical habitat to countless species of plants and animals, including imperiled spider monkeys and jaguars, as well as fungi and microorganisms.

 

The Yucatán Peninsula currently has approximately 257 registered industrial pig farms that produce more than one million animals a year for slaughter, 14% of Mexico's production capacity. Of those registered operations, 86% are located in Yucatán with the remainder in Quintana Roo and Campeche. The distribution of operations in Yucatán is mostly concentrated in the municipalities surrounding the city of Mérida.

 

"It is crucial to regulate the existing pig industry in the Yucatan Peninsula to avoid an ecosystemic catastrophe and then transform the pig meat production model at the industrial level from the roots," said Viridiana Lazaro, food and agriculture campaigner for Greenpeace Mexico.

 

Since 2018, descendants from the Mayan town of Homún have been fighting in federal and administrative courts in Mexico to defend the area's vast natural resources and their indigenous rights against the development and operation of a 49,000-pig factory farm owned by Producción Alimentaria Porcícola.

 

The case, which has resulted in the suspension of the farm's operations, is set to be heard by the Mexican Supreme Court later this year.

 

"Pollution from the Yucatán's industrial pig operations falls disproportionately on the Indigenous Maya," said Hannah Connor, a senior attorney at the center. "The time is now for Mexico's environmental authorities to respond to the sovereign claims made by these communities and promptly address the serious harms this industry poses to indigenous rights, the environment and the water they depend on."

 

- Center for Biological Diversity