Category: Nature

President Claudia Sheinbaum has signaled a major policy shift by opening the door to new natural gas extraction technologies, a decision that environmental groups and energy experts warn could be a dangerous leap into an environmental “dead end.”

During her daily press conference this week, Sheinbaum defended the exploration of non-conventional gas extraction techniques, arguing they are essential to “fortify” the nation’s energy sovereignty. This marks a significant reversal from her previous staunch opposition to hydraulic fracturing, the controversial process more commonly known as fracking.

While the President insists she is rejecting “traditional fracking” due to its severe environmental impacts, she has proposed a scientific committee, including experts from UNAM and the IPN, to evaluate newer, purportedly “low-impact” methods. However, more than 80 civil society organizations, including the Mexican Alliance Against Fracking, immediately condemned the proposal.

“The idea of a ‘sustainable’ version of fracking may sound promising in a speech, but in reality, it does not exist,” the coalition said in a blistering statement, accusing the administration of a “political U-turn” that breaks campaign promises.

What is Fracking and Why is it a Problem?

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of injecting a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and toxic chemicals deep into underground rock formations to crack them open and release trapped oil or gas.

While the industry has hailed it as a bridge to energy independence, the technique is deeply controversial due to a catastrophic list of side effects documented over the last 15 years across more than 2,300 scientific studies.

In the United States, the cradle of the fracking boom, the consequences have been dire. The disposal of fracking wastewater—so chemically laden it cannot be returned to the water cycle—has been directly linked to a dramatic surge in earthquakes in states like Oklahoma and Texas.

Furthermore, the industry is currently facing a wastewater crisis. In the Permian Basin, for every barrel of oil extracted, up to five to six barrels of toxic brine are produced. Disposal wells are overloading, leading to leaks, ground deformation, and the potential contamination of freshwater reserves. These “new technologies” touted by the government—such as using treated wastewater or seawater—have been tested in the US but have not become standard practice due to prohibitive costs, ranging from $5 to $10 million per installation.

The Pemex Factor: Corruption and Catastrophe

Even if the technical hurdles of fracking could be overcome, experts argue that Mexico is uniquely ill-equipped to manage the risks, primarily due to the state of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). The state-owned giant has a notoriously poor environmental and safety record, raising profound questions about its ability to regulate a process as volatile as fracking.

The skepticism is not unfounded. Just this week, Pemex admitted that one of its undersea pipelines caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which has already soiled beaches and threatens biosphere reserves like Los Tuxtlas. This incident is merely the latest in a long history of disasters.

Furthermore, a 2024 fatal incident at the Pemex Deer Park Refinery in Texas, which released over 27,000 pounds of hydrogen sulfide gas, killing two workers, highlighted the company’s ongoing struggles with maintenance and safety protocols.

Critics argue that entrusting Pemex with the high-stakes, precision-dependent task of fracking is reckless. Analysts point to the soaring costs and operational failures of the Dos Bocas refinery as evidence that Pemex cannot handle complex projects.

“The President, blinded by ideology, starts from an error,” one political analysis noted. “The enormous limitations of Pemex are not being considered. The overcosts and operational problems of the Dos Bocas refinery should be enough not to entrust a single project more to them”.

The Numbers Don’t Add Up

Beyond the environmental and institutional risks, the coalition of NGOs argues that the economic rationale for fracking in Mexico is fundamentally flawed. Currently, Mexico imports 75% of its natural gas, creating a dependency Sheinbaum wishes to break.

However, the math does not support the plan. According to Pemex’s own Strategic Plan, by 2035, Mexico would only produce 4.988 billion cubic feet per day (MMpcd) of gas. This falls drastically short of the current national demand of 9,000 MMpcd.

“Energy sovereignty will not be achieved by extracting Mexico’s dwindling gas reserves,” the NGOs argued. “Even if we could extract all the gas in our subsoil, it would be insufficient to supply the growing demand for fossil gas”.

For the first time, scientists have recorded a jaguar in the state of Guanajuato, marking a significant expansion of the species’ range in central Mexico.

The National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp) confirmed that camera traps captured images of the jaguar inside the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. The reserve is in northeastern Guanajuato and spans nearly 237,000 hectares across five municipalities.

Researchers installed 75 camera traps between August 2024 and May 2025 with assistance from community monitors. The project was led by Juan Felipe Charre-Medellín and received funding from Toyota and Mexico’s science agency.

The jaguar was photographed in an area with large sections of continuous forest and low human disturbance. According to Charre-Medellín, the location lies within a corridor connecting jaguar populations in central Mexico to those in the eastern part of the country.

With this discovery, all six wild cat species found in Mexico have now been recorded in the Sierra Gorda reserve. The others are the ocelot, the tiger cat, the jaguarundi, the bobcat, and the puma.

Why This Matters

Jaguars are what scientists call an apex predator. They sit at the top of the food chain and help keep ecosystems balanced by controlling populations of deer, peccaries, and other herbivores. Without them, overgrazing can damage forests and reduce biodiversity.

The Sierra Gorda reserve is home to nearly 2,900 species of fungi, plants, and animals. Twelve of those species are classified as endangered, 39 as threatened, and 51 under special protection.

Jaguar Populations in Mexico

The jaguar’s situation in Mexico is mixed. Recent census data indicate that the population has grown significantly over the past decade; however, the species still faces serious threats.

According to the National Alliance for Jaguar Conservation (ANCJ), Mexico had an estimated 5,326 jaguars in 2024. That represents a 30 percent increase since 2010, when the government first listed the species as endangered, and an 11 percent increase since 2018.

However, experts warn that the population remains vulnerable. The ANCJ estimates it will take 15 to 30 years of steady growth for the species to be considered no longer in danger. Reaching a stable population of 8,000 jaguars could take more than three decades.

At the same time, the species has lost more than half of its historical range in Mexico due to human development, deforestation, and habitat fragmentation. A book published in February 2026 by the Universidad Intercultural del Estado de México describes the jaguar’s situation as “critical,” with some of the lowest genetic diversity found across the species’ entire range from the southwestern United States to Argentina.

The largest jaguar populations in Mexico are in the Yucatán Peninsula, where an estimated 1,699 individuals live, followed by the South Pacific region with 1,541 individuals.

Ongoing Threats for Jaguars

Habitat destruction remains the biggest threat to jaguars in Mexico. Agricultural expansion, cattle ranching, and urban growth continue to reduce the areas where jaguars can live.

Conflict with ranchers is another major problem. When jaguars lose their natural prey, they sometimes attack cattle. Ranchers may kill jaguars in retaliation. Illegal trafficking of jaguar skins, skulls, claws, and teeth also continues.

Conservation groups have called for stronger protections, including incentives to preserve wildlife corridors that allow jaguars to move between habitats, and stricter enforcement against the sale of jaguar parts on social media platforms.

Community Role in Conservation

In the Selva Lacandona region of Chiapas, community-based conservation projects have helped reduce conflict between ranchers and jaguars. A program called Jaguardianes has trained residents to monitor jaguars with camera traps. Some former hunters now help document jaguar activity and assist ranchers in filing livestock insurance claims when jaguars attack cattle.

Similar community monitoring efforts in Guanajuato helped confirm the jaguar’s presence in the Sierra Gorda reserve. Conanp said the discovery reflects the work of landowners, academics, civil organizations, and government agencies working together.

Conanp stated that the first recorded jaguar in Guanajuato confirms the Sierra Gorda reserve’s status as the state’s most biodiverse and best-preserved natural area.

What was once a small-scale tradition is now a global phenomenon. International demand has pushed Mexican mezcal production from approximately 1 million liters in 2010 to over 11 million liters in 2024, according to the Mexican Regulatory Council for Mezcal Quality (Comercam). Nearly 75 percent of exports head to the United States, and less than 30 percent of total production remains in Mexico.

Along roads leading to communities like San Luis del Río—where celebrity-backed brands such as Dos Hombres, co-founded by Breaking Bad actors Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, are produced—vast agave plantations now cover hillsides that were forest just years ago.

Forests Cleared, Water Stressed

Research led by Rufino Sandoval-García, a forestry engineer and professor at the Technological University of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, documents the scale of change. In two major mezcal-producing areas, more than 86 acres of tropical dry and pine-oak forests have disappeared over two decades to make room for agave cultivation—an area roughly the size of Monterrey. Agave plantations expanded by over 400 percent in three decades, with most new plantings devoted to espadín, a variety used in commercial mezcal.

The consequences extend beyond tree loss. Deforestation is accelerating soil erosion, reducing carbon capture by an estimated 4 million tons annually in the studied region, limiting groundwater recharge, and creating heat islands in heavily planted areas.

Mezcal production has always demanded significant resources. Producing one liter requires at least 10 liters of water for fermentation and distillation, according to industry estimates. The process also generates waste: bagasse (the pulpy residue) and vinazas (acidic wastewater) often end up untreated in rivers.

A 2025 report from Oaxaca’s Network of Interpreters and Cultural Promoters warned that the industry is extracting more than 50 million liters of water annually without adequate regulation, while over 70 million tons of vinazas are discharged into rivers. The organization identified transnational companies—including Britain’s Diageo, France’s Pernod Ricard, and Mexico’s Becle (formerly José Cuervo)—as linked to brands contributing to environmental damage.

The Shift From Milpa to Monoculture

Félix Monterrosa, a third-generation producer from Santiago Matatlán who owns the Oaxacan brand CUISH, describes how industrial mezcal displaced the traditional milpa system he learned from his ancestors—a method where corn, beans, and squash were cultivated alongside agave.

“Now everything is monoculture, and that is the real problem,” Monterrosa said.

The shift has left visible scars. In his town, decades of dumping mezcal waste into the river left the water so contaminated that residents nicknamed it “Nilo”—short for “ni lo huelas,” or “don’t even smell it”. Monterrosa now plants wild agaves alongside corn and trees to restore biodiversity, though he acknowledges that scaling this approach remains difficult.

Scientific research supports concerns about biodiversity loss. A genomic study published in October 2025 found that espadín—the dominant agave used in commercial mezcal—represents a clonal lineage selected by farmers for desirable production traits, resulting in considerable genetic differentiation from wild agave populations. This genetic uniformity increases vulnerability to pests and disease while reducing resilience to climate change.

Economic Lifeline or Environmental Toll?

For many in Oaxaca—where poverty rates remain among Mexico’s highest—the mezcal boom has brought unprecedented economic opportunity.

Luis Cruz Velasco, a producer from San Luis del Río who works with Mexican brands like Bruxo, said the industry’s growth has created jobs for nearly every family in his town of about 300 residents. “Before, people in this town lived in houses with thatched roofs. Then we were able to build with sheet metal, and now they are made of cement,” said Luis Cruz Ruiz, 62, reflecting on the changes. “We survived because of the maguey”.

Velasco acknowledges the environmental trade-offs. “There are many people who criticize us and ask what we do to reforest,” he said. “But we have to look for a livelihood and food”.

He points to a lack of public incentives as a core problem. “We know it has an impact,” Velasco said, adding that large brands have done more than the government to support marginalized areas, but farmers need support to adopt sustainable practices like planting native trees or maintaining traditional systems.

Efforts Toward Sustainability

In 2018, Garnica founded a women’s collective called Guardians of Mezcal. The group promotes mezcal production using sustainable practices: using only fallen trees for firewood, planting agave alongside other crops, and avoiding monoculture.

With support from Tierra de Agaves and local community officials from Santa María Zoquitlán, the collective secured protected status for 26,000 hectares of forest surrounding the municipality.

“If there is a funeral, a wedding, a party, mezcal is a drink you are going to share with others, and above all, many families depend on it,” Garnica said. “Mezcal is a way of life, like a form of work that our parents taught us, so it really means a lot”.

As the thirst for Mezcal arround the world continues to grow, so does pressure on ecosystems.