What is COP13

This will add 181 protected natural environments – a total of 91 million hectares (70 million at sea and 21 million on land) – to Mexico’s existing 25 million hectares of reserves and biospheres. The Mexican Caribbean Biosphere, slated to include 100% of the Mesoamerican Reef system, will protect the most important turtle beaches in Quintana Roo state and the Yucatán Peninsula, and prohibit oil exploration in Mexico’s Caribbean Sea. Another new marine reserve, the Biosphere of the Mexican Pacific Deep, encompasses almost the entire Mexican Pacific shore. It aims to protect the rich biodiversity present in marine areas off the coast of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas states. That includes 42 species of stony corals, 1,006 species of algae and more than 920 endemic molluscs.