In five years, Lake Texcoco went from the foundations of an international airport to being a Protected Natural Area (ANP). With its more than 14,000 hectares of extension, between environmental devastation and social conflicts, this wetland in the State of Mexico, neighboring the country's capital, received a decree in March 2022 and on June 5, in connection with World Environment Day, its management plan was published.
The plan establishes 13 sub-zones with activities allowed and not allowed. With the exception of those intended for agricultural use and public use, most prioritize scientific research, environmental monitoring and site restoration, while aquaculture, agriculture, opening roads or trails, livestock, tourism and any other activity that alters the ecosystem are prohibited.
But in addition to what seems like a victory for the defense of the lake, the environmental budgets of the ANP were reduced this six-year term, the rapid consultations did not include all communities and the work between government agencies has been described as “disjointed” by some specialists.
After the recent presidential elections, the community vision is for the project to continue beyond institutional administrations.
“We seek a commitment from this new government to attend to and continue to rescue Lake Texcoco and the entire region. The reality is that we have barely managed to analyze the problem and begin to propose the solutions, but not to implement all the solutions. What we are looking for is to understand that (lake conservation) does not obey a government, but rather that it is a social project,” explained Arturo González, a member of Manos a la Cuenca.
Manos a la Cuenca is a project that emerged from the People's Front for Land Defense (FPDT) of San Salvador Atenco and the #YoPrefieroElLago People's Coordinator. The purpose since before the ANP decree has been to promote assemblies, investigations and documentation to conserve the Texcoco sub-basin.
Subzoning of the ANP Lake Texcoco. In light yellow the area of influence and in intense yellow the area dedicated to agricultural use. Image: Management plan published in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
The protection area covers the municipalities of Atenco, Texcoco, Chimalhuacán, Nezahualcóyotl and Ecatepec, in the State of Mexico. Photo: Adrián Sotelo/National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (CONANP).
Decrees to conserve
Hundreds of years before the rise of Mexico City, Tenochtitlan existed on six bodies of water that together formed Lake Texcoco. With the arrival of the Spanish, their environmental decline began when the conquest led to the reconstruction of the hydraulic infrastructure.
Hundreds of years later, attempts to convert Lake Texcoco into an airport occurred in 2001, when then-president Vicente Fox (2000 - 2006) selected this region to develop the project, which was canceled a year later when demonstrations by ejidatarios from San Salvador Atenco, in the State of Mexico, culminated in police repression.
In 2014, then-president Enrique Peña Nieto (2012 - 2018) resumed the airport plan, but local opposition continued as the effects on this fundamental ecosystem for water and climate regulation in the Valley of Mexico became evident.
It was in 2019, with the current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, that the project was canceled through a popular consultation. Finally, the airport was built on what was formerly the Santa Lucía military airbase in Zumpango, State of Mexico, and the ANP decree for Lake Texcoco was announced covering five municipalities: Atenco, Texcoco, Chimalhuacán, Nezahualcóyotl and Ecatepec.
But even before these proposals, the lake has undergone processes of desiccation and multiple transformations due to agricultural activity, urban development, mining and wastewater pollution.
“We have mining. We have urbanization. We have speculation. We have shock groups. We have a body of water that, on the one hand, has a city (Mexico City) that can no longer grow another centimeter and, on the other hand, it has peoples who are trying to defend their biculturality and way of life,” said Arturo González. 
Lake Texcoco receives an average of 150,000 migratory birds annually. Photo: Adrián Sotelo/National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (CONANP).
Official plan of the protected area of Lake Texcoco. Source: Official Decree of the ANP.
Although some citizens and some authorities have given up on it, this wetland receives an average of 150,000 migratory birds that travel annually from north to south. It is also a water and air quality regulator for residents of Mexico City and the State of Mexico.
“Faced with this skepticism on the part of public opinion that it is a desert site or that it is not worth recovering, I could tell you that the migration processes that are generated in the area are still important for around 255 species of birds that are distributed in this space, some that stay all winter, others just occupy it in passing, but in the end they are using this territory and it is important that it be made known,” said Laura Ramírez, environmental biologist and member of the Xooch' aleteos project in the basin
Before the ANP decree, Ramírez participated in the document “Opinion and scientific recommendations to contribute to the establishment of the Lake Texcoco Protected Natural Area”, advised by more than 20 researchers from different universities in Mexico, which highlighted the importance of including rivers in the east of the State of Mexico that are also affected, and it was even suggested to add other neighboring regions.
“The area of influence would have to consider the 16 municipalities through which the nine rivers of the East pass and are born,” the specialists said in the document.
In the end, the management plan only considered a little more than 3,000 hectares for the area of influence that encompasses the municipalities of Chimalhuacán, Texcoco and Atenco for areas with scattered plots of crops and rural houses.
“All these management programs should last two or three years in which a sufficiently slow study is actually carried out and maps are generated that are not just a five or six hour visit with one of the communities, but exhaustive maps in which there are participatory strategies that can express in a concrete and profound way the needs of the communities,” Ramírez said of the processes.
However, the speed with which protected areas have been announced in Mexico has an impact on the decrees. Just last January, the federal government reported on the decree of 20 new ANPs in different areas of the country, totaling 43 decreed this six-year term. The objective is that by the end of this administration, more than 50 management programs have been published.
Lake Texcoco Federal Zone. Photo: National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (CONANP)
10 pesos per hectare
While Mexico's Protected Natural Areas increased in decrees, the environmental budget decreased, leaving only 10.7 pesos for each hectare allocated to conservation, according to calculations made by the coalition of non-profit environmental organizations Northwest Civil Society for Environmental Sustainability (NOSSA).
Not having an effective budget earmarked for environmental protection has an impact on conservation objectives. Without funding, it is not possible to operate the activities established by management programs, such as having trained personnel with sufficient resources for the inspection and surveillance of these areas.
Without inspection, it is easier for illegal and extractive activities such as logging, hunting for species, irregular constructions, unauthorized mining, and others to continue.
In the report “Caring for what matters: the budget for the care of the environment and protected natural areas in the PPEF 2024”, prepared by NOSSA, it is detailed that what was granted to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) for this year had a cut of 11.4% in real terms. This represents 9 billion pesos less than last year.
“Although Conanp has assured that the resources for the ANP will be complemented by mechanisms such as the collection of rights (the fee charged by some ANPs to visitors, such as the right of use and enjoyment), the truth is that there are no details on how the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) will be able to reimburse 100% of these resources to Conanp (to exercise them as dictated by article 198 of the Federal Law on Rights) and how they would be distributed among all the ANPs,” the coalition specifies in its report.
In the case of Lake Texcoco, Arturo González is convinced that not only is a better budget needed for a single agency or sector.
“Yes, it's a reality that environmental budgets in Mexico are very low... I think the issue sometimes is also understanding that it's not about an institution or a sector being the solution to a problem, but that horizontal and institutional work is the real solution to problems. Lake Texcoco is not only part of Semarnat, it is also (in the sector) health, culture, education...”, explained González.
The joint work
“(Lake Texcoco) is a system that works throughout the basin, only that there is a limitation due to the fence of the polygon. Within the federal zone, actions are managed differently. Outside, the system is being restored, some gaps have been recovered, but if it is required that it be done (a restoration plan) either under the management plan scheme or another,” explained Eloísa Domínguez, a doctor in Earth Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Around the official decree carried out by the authorities, other plans are being built, Domínguez said. Collaborative water management for the Mexico Basin and its environment is currently under way, managed by the National Council for Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt), which seeks to recover water cycles within the Texcoco basin through citizen comptrollers that bring together communities that are experiencing the impacts and can provide possible solutions.
These types of plans are important so that remediation takes place between communities and not “behind a desk,” Domínguez said.
Biologist Laura Ramírez added that it is important for all people to read the plan and “keep a critical and informed view” of the socio-environmental impact.
For the populations, the rescue must be more than a political issue. Arturo González, from Manos a la Cuenca, believes that if the lake is rescued, it can be an example for other water areas in the country that are also under threat.
“We would like new officials to understand and have that social conscience because, really, it's impressive how there is this environmental dehumanization. It's difficult to make many specialists understand who leave their comfort zone, a laboratory or a university, and understand community problems,” González added.
González also recognizes the need to continue learning together. Even more people interested in the Texcoco region or Mexico City are joining to continue promoting conservation with direct work or just to learn about what is being done from the Manos a la Cuenca project and others like it.
“We know that we are not perfect and we are looking for a lot of support. Anyone who wants or knows about methodologies to improve environmental processes is welcome. We have never closed anything to ourselves and even those who want to know what we have done, it seems very little, are the doors open”, he concluded.
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