Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Emilio Godoy the Mexican correspondent covering environmental, human rights and sustainable development for the Inter Press Service has published an article titled ‘Mexican Fisherwomen Organise Against Climate Change’, in which he states “The women’s [Mujeres Trabajadoras del Mar] cooperative emerged as a collective effort to adapt to climate change, the effects of which are increasingly being felt on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which bathes the shores of this fishing village at the top of the Yucatan Peninsula in southeast Mexico, 1,700 km from the capital. San Felipe, which has a population of 1,850, is one of the 25 coastal towns in Mexico most exposed to the effects of global warming, in the form of stronger hurricanes, heavier and more frequent flooding and increasing changes in the availability of seafood species, which has caused problems for fishing, the town’s main economic activity. In 2002, Hurricane Isidore devastated 90 percent of the plants along the coast, including the mangroves lining the edges of the huge nearby lagoon. The women in the cooperative, who were trained in “mangrove ecology” a year after the hurricane, have played a key role in restoring the mangroves, which are vital to keeping water temperatures from climbing too high in the lagoon, an important breeding ground for species ranging from lobsters to the longnose spider crab. But here, as in the rest of Mexico, women are absent from government programmes to combat climate change. However, like the fisherwomen of San Felipe, women in communities affected by climate change are slowly starting to organise and get involved in adaptation and mitigation measures.”

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