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May 16, 2025
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Plant-for-the-Planet

Yucatán Restoration affected by two severe wildfires

Since the 23rd April 2025, the project area of our partner Plant-for-the-Planet AC in Constitución on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico has been affected by two severe forest fires.

After an uncharacteristically hot and dry start to the year, the first fire broke out in the Las Americas 7a restoration area. Intensive restoration work has been carried out in this section in recent years. Due to the long period of heat and strong wind, the fire was able to spread quickly across the dry grass areas and caused severe damage. We currently have to assume that the seedlings from 2023 and 2024 were almost completely destroyed in this area. For the older plants from 2021 and 2022, there is a chance that they have survived and will recover due to their size.  

The fire was noticed by project staff who were staying in the staff accommodation not far from the area in which the fire broke out. The entire team was immediately alerted and deployed to extinguish the fire. They fought the fire in three brigades, each with nine members, over the course of 1.5 days. Strong gusts of wind caused sparks to be spread widely, which repeatedly ignited new fires. This made it very difficult to get the fire under control. It was only possible to extinguish the fire completely  once the wind died down.

Fire in the Las Americas 7a

Just a few days later, on the 4th May 2025, a forest fire was reported near the Las Americas 6 site. Together with government units, the Plant-for-the-Planet team battled the fire for five days. In the end, the fire-fighting teams were unable to prevent the fire from spreading to the project area. The total area affected is 413 hectares, of which 104 hectares are on the Plant-for-the-Planet site. The fire mainly damaged secondary forest here, which consists of densely growing shrubs; new plantings were not affected. The causes of the fires are not known.

Fire in the Las Americas 6

The damage caused by the fires is a painful setback for the project. An initial survey of the fire on the site Las Americas 7a has revealed that around 240 hectares of already restored land have been affected. Around 57 hectares of this area were planted in 2023 and 2024. In these areas, a total loss of the planted trees is to be expected, which means a total number of approx. 425,000 seedlings (this corresponds to approx. 10.5% of the seedlings planted in 2023 and approx. 14% of the seedlings planted in 2024). For the areas that were planted in 2021 and 2022, the damage cannot yet be assessed in detail. We will have to wait for the coming rainy season to see how many of the trees will recover and sprout again. Once we have this data, we will decide on suitable next steps to continue to restore the site.

With 240 hectares affected, this fire was the most devastating on the project area to date. Compared to the extent of forest fires in the region, however, it is not one of the worst. Just last year, the Plant-for-the-Planet team supported the fire-fighting efforts in a major fire that ultimately destroyed 1,200 hectares of forest. 

Despite extensive educational work, many forest fires are still caused by human behavior: burning cigarette butts thrown from moving cars, and fires deliberately set during (often illegal) hunting to drive game in a certain direction, repeatedly cause immense damage. The fires can spread quickly due to the long dry spells. Extremely high temperatures (currently over 40°C) also make fire-fighting work considerably more difficult. The local team is well equipped to fight forest fires and are trained to respond in regular training sessions with CONAFOR, the national forestry commission. Nevertheless, the top priority remains that no unnecessary risks are taken. 

We are glad that no one was injured in the fires and hope that the region will be spared further fires for the time being so that nature and people can recover.