Science - USA (2022-01-21)

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250 21 JANUARY 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6578 science.org SCIENCE

E

very day at sunset, a 3-million-bat

whirlwind emerges from a cave and

floods the night sky of the Calak-

mul Biosphere Reserve. The cave—El

Volcán de los Murciélagos (the Bat

Volcano)—hosts at least seven bat spe-

cies and is a pillar of the region’s ecosys-

tem. Ecologist Rodrigo Medellín Legorreta

of the National Autonomous University of

Mexico (UNAM), University City, calls it

“the most important bat colony of the neo-

tropical region.” But he and other scientists

say the bats and other native species could

be in jeopardy as a new train makes it way

through the Maya rainforest.

The Maya Train, named after the Indig-

enous people of the Yucatán Peninsula, is a

controversial $9.8 billion megaproject that

aims to transport more than 40,000 passen-

gers daily across 1500 kilometers of south-

eastern Mexico. It’s backed by Mexican

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador,

whose administration says it will boost

transportation in the Yucatán Peninsula

and bring much-needed development and

tourism. The United Nations predicts the

train will create almost 1 million new jobs

and double economic growth in the region.

López Obrador has promised that, like other

megaprojects, the train will be finished by

the end of 2023.

But many scientists, along with some

Maya activists, worry the train and accom-

panying development will have devastat-

ing, irreversible impacts, fragmenting the

rainforest, reducing and polluting habitats,

and disturbing ancient sites. “Wherever the

train crosses, it will affect the archaeology

and rainforest,” says Romel Rubén González

Díaz, a Maya activist and coordinator at the

Regional Indigenous and Popular Council

of Xpujil.

An executive summary of the project’s

risks, released by Mexico’s National Council

on Science and Technology in 2019, warned

of possible damage. It said the train would

threaten at least 10 protected natural areas

and nearly 1300 archaeological sites, and af-

fect more than 143,000 Indigenous people

living along the proposed route, with the

rise in tourism potentially worsening per-

vasive human and drug trafficking.

The full report has still not been pub-

lished, and track is already being laid. Critics

hope there’s still time to shape the train’s sec-

ond phase of 900 kilometers, which is still on

the drawing board, and minimize damage.

In June 2020, amid heated debate, the

National Fund for Tourism Development

(Fonatur) began to build the train’s first

phase, which will transport locals and

tourists 635 kilometers from Palenque in

Chiapas state, near an ancient Maya city,

to Izamal in Yucatán state, a colonial city

founded over an ancient Maya settlement

(see map, p. 251). The route passes through

savanna, mangroves, and rainforest that

house thousands of species, many of them

endangered, including jaguars, tapirs, scar-

let macaws, Yucatán black howler monkeys,

and many species of bats.

Fonatur’s scientific advisers note that

trains are more environmentally friendly

than highways, and almost half the train

will run along the route of existing tracks.

Decisions about the train “are based on sci-

entific evidence,” says neuroscientist Javier

Velázquez Moctezuma, a Fonatur adviser.

But some researchers say the project was

poorly planned and rushed. In November

2021, López Obrador issued a presidential

decree categorizing the train and other

megaprojects as matters of public interest

and national security in a move to speed

construction and overcome multiple injunc-

tions filed to stop it. And 2 weeks ago, soil

instability forced planners to shift the route

of phase two. “It would’ve been wise for the

planning to be ready many years before,”

says Gerardo Ceballos González, a UNAM

ecologist who has supervised some of the

train’s environmental mitigation plans. “But

we have to work with what we have.”

Scientists and Indigenous leaders in-

cluding González Díaz also contend the

environmental analysis to date has been

incomplete and superficial. In January

2021, more than 160 academics criticized

the Environmental Impact Manifestation

By Rodrigo Pérez Ortega and

Inés Gutiérrez Jaber, in Mexico City

ENVIRONMENT

A controversial train heads for the Maya forest

Critics fear Mexico’s presidential megaproject could threaten ecology, archaeology

IN DEPTH

The Maya Train (artist’s concept)

will carry tourists to natural

reserves and archaeological sites.