Some fighting climate change face risks

Mexico's Indigenous communities are on the front lines of ecological preservation. Many still live on their ancestral lands and struggle against development projects that would destroy some of the world's most precious ecosystems that they call home. Their resistance has taken the form of protests, blockades of major highways and the occupation of government buildings.

These communities are showing us how the fight against climate change begins at the local level. They also have valuable lessons to teach us about maintaining plants, fauna and species native to their lands. But Mexico has become the deadliest place in the world for environmental and land activists protecting Indigenous territories, according to the nonprofit Global Witness, which says 54 environmental and land defenders were killed in Mexico in 2021.

As journalists, we have seen what communities are facing. We recently traveled to Paso de la Reina, a town where six Indigenous environmental activists have been killed over two years for defending their pristine Rio Verde River.

This isolated Chatino and Mixtec Indigenous territory lies in the southern state of Oaxaca — a couple of hours drive from the beach resort of Puerto Escondido, popular with foreign tourists. Researchers told us they believe the activists were targeted for their environmental work. Prosecutors aren't following up on the killings.

Indigenous defenders are increasingly becoming the last line of defense for the environment in Mexico, playing an essential role in the monumental task of preserving the national biodiversity. Indigenous people comprise less than 5% of the world's population, but take care of an estimated 80% of the Earth's biodiversity, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

A study by the Rights and Resources Initiative estimates that more than half of Mexico's land is owned by Indigenous peoples and local communities. This is possible in large part because of Mexico's specific socalled tierras ejidales and tierras comunales systems, both of which allow for collective property ownership in Mexico, often by Indigenous communities who exercise their political right to self-determination, guaranteed by the constitution.

But these progressive political reforms have not changed the aggression against Mexico's Indigenous communities. Indigenous people, who represent more than 19% of the Mexican population, according to a government census — about 24 million people — have been under threat for centuries. This historic marginalization continues to hamper Indigenous people protecting ecosystems whose untapped natural resources are now sought after.

On Indigenous communal land we recently visited in the isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, the Mexican government wants to build an “Interoceanic Corridor,” a mega road, rail, pipeline and industrial project to rival the Panama Canal: linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with gigantic industrial complexes and refineries importing and exporting products along the way. U.S. authorities, such as U.S. ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, have also touted this project as a substitute for former President Donald Trump's infamous “wall” — an industrial, militarized frontier that will provide Central and South American migrants job opportunities, and also prevent them from crossing over into the United States by force.

In February the Mexican government announced it will begin receiving bids for this megaproject's industrial parks from U.S., Mexican and multinational corporations. But a dozen different Indigenous communities live in the area encompassed by the Interoceanic Corridor.

It is unclear whether these Indigenous activists — sometimes carrying just machetes — can resist the Mexican Navy securing the Interoceanic megaproject since last October, backed by U.S. economic interests.

Indigenous communities protecting precious natural resources deserve to be heard and incorporated in Mexican authorities' political and economic decisions increasingly affecting their territories. Not only because they are the legal owners of their lands, but also because we might learn from their ways of life that have efficiently protected public goods like clean water, unpolluted air and biodiversity, sometimes for millennia. U.S. officials and companies pursuing development projects in Mexico should also respect and engage with Indigenous people.

Some communities have been successful in resisting environmental destruction and safeguarding their land. The Zapotec community of Magdalena Teitipac protested against the installation of a Canadian gold and silver mine in the Central Valleys of the state of Oaxaca, preserving precious underground aquifers in an increasingly arid Oaxaca.

If we fail to pay attention to and protect Indigenous voices, we all stand to suffer the consequences of our fading ecology.