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From the side of the highway connecting Colima to Manzanillo in western Mexico, you can see hundreds of cormorants feeding alongside pelicans and herons. They are part of the more than 180 bird species recorded in the Cuyutlán lagoon, the fourth largest wetland in the country and the fifth most important in the world among migratory birds. This body of water represents 90% of the wetlands of the State of Colima. The first expansion of the port years ago, as well as the presence of a liquefied natural gas terminal and the impact of the activity of a thermoelectric power plant have had an impact on this ecosystem of more than 7,000 hectares, but life continues to make its way. However, it now faces a new threat, according to environmentalists, fishermen and salt farmers who live off the lagoon.
On August 9, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced in Colima that the port of Manzanillo will go from being the third most important in Latin America to the first, quadrupling its capacity to receive containers, which threaten the entire lagoon ecosystem. The expansion is part of the flagship infrastructure megaprojects of the Mexico Plan promoted by the Fourth Transformation Government, which has increased political and economic pressure on the Cuyutlán Lagoon, despite warnings of its serious socio-environmental impacts.
In the lagoon’s Vessel II, where the port expansion is planned, is the highest concentration of fish that feed the area’s fishing activity, according to María del Carmen Velasco, leader of the fishing cooperatives. Fishermen of the Cuyutlán Alameda lagoon AND Aquaculture farmers of the Cuyutlán lagoon, leaving hundreds of families without a means of subsistence.
In this same space there are a set of islets of great archaeological richness, according to various studies. Researchers such as Margarita Carballal, María Antonieta Moguel and María de los Ángeles Olay have documented several rescue works carried out in the area due to the entry of large projects. During these investigations, important discoveries were made, from small vestiges to funerary hills, but they were not enough to stop the projects. In fact, the expansion project’s Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) calls for the complete removal of these islets with explosives to build a large concrete slab where the deep-draft ships will dock.
The lagoon hosts one of the most important biocultural heritages in Mexico, since basins III and IV are part of the Ramsar Convention’s list of wetlands of international importance due to their great ecological relevance. Cuyutlán artisanal salt is extracted from there, on which more than 1,500 families depend for direct and indirect work, according to Miguel Ramos, president of the Cooperative Society of Colima Salt Workers. The cooperative has just celebrated its 100 years of activity, but it is documented that artisanal extraction boasts a tradition that dates back more than five centuries.
Data from the Cuyutlán Ecological Center The Tortugarino dedicated to the study, conservation and dissemination in the Palo Verde estuary, located in Basin IV, reveal that four of the six mangrove species that populate Mexico are found in this environment and that they provide multiple ecosystem services. According to Marco Liñán, researcher at the University of Colima, coastal lagoons are areas of high biological productivity and function as natural nurseries, as they serve as habitats for the reproduction and growth of commercially important fish, crustaceans and molluscs, and act as natural filters that capture nutrients and pollutants from adjacent basins, and help maintain the quality of coastal waters.
For Raymundo Padilla, a researcher specializing in disaster risk management, the value of the lagoon is also strategic. The area presents a high risk of impact from tsunamis, hurricanes and high-intensity earthquakes. The mangrove acts as a natural barrier that reduces the risk to surrounding populations. According to the researchers, having a mangrove reef as important as the one in Basin II of the Cuyutlán lagoon significantly reduces the risk of disasters for surrounding populations and makes them more resilient to the effects of climate change.
Despite evidence supporting the need to protect the wetland, civil organizations say the state government is rushing the development of the project. The civil association Defenders of the Environment and Resources of Tomorrow (Demarem) claims that the public consultation was a simulation, as it took place only online, with technical failures and without guaranteeing access to communities. A messaging channel was activated so that those who failed to complete the process on the platform could take screenshots and send them to the association to collect evidence and collected almost 100 tests in eight days from people who had failed to register their request.
They also point out that the State Government itself announced the start of dredging works in January 2025, fragmenting the same project into multiple projects when these are part of the same expansion work. América Futura contacted the State Government to obtain a response to these criticisms, but did not receive a response.
Additionally, several fishing leaders who oppose the project have said they have been harassed. Despite this, the opposition did not stop. On October 29, hundreds of people marched in Colima in defense of the lagoon, demanding the right to a healthy environment. On November 8, another mobilization took place in Manzanillo in which the Federal Government and the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) were asked to review the project with due rigor.
Faced with criticism that the project was rushed and pushed forward without relevant studies, Humberto Retana, head of Semarnat’s representative office in Colima, assured a group of protesters who arrived at his office on October 29 that the project was still in the process of “assessing the environmental impact in Mexico City” and was willing to receive “any concerns” about it. “The decision on this project lies with the promoting party, that is, the Secretary of the Navy who intends to create a new project, a new port”, said the official, who assured, when asked by a girl, that what motivates the port is the “development of the State”.
But the protesters asked that the idea of progress not ignore the communities that live in the lagoon, nor the value of ecosystems in the face of the effects of climate change. Colima is already facing water stress levels in its aquifers and has consequences since the port’s first expansion, such as high levels of pollution, traffic accidents due to trailer traffic and insufficient urban infrastructure, as biologist Mariana Gudiño warned on October 2 in a meeting called by Semarnat. For many of those who oppose the project, quadrupling the port’s capacity does not mean development, but rather quadrupling existing problems. For them the main certainty is that the largest port in Latin America cannot be built to the detriment of the lagoon ecosystem.
