| Montreal, 1/12/2008 – On 17 November 2008, Carlos Alvarez Flores (the "Submitter") filed a
submission with the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC),
SEM-08-003 (Jetty construction in Cancun).
The submission asserts that the Attorney General’s branch office for Environmental Protection (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente—Profepa) in Quintana Roo is failing to investigate and prosecute the actions of a local hotel involving the construction of a jetty on the Cancun coast where the hotel is located, in violation of Mexico’s environmental impact assessment laws.
According to the Submitter, such jetties have been banned along the seashore in Cancun as they induce beach erosion and moreover cause harm to coral reefs through sand deposition in the Cancun marine park. The Submitter asserts that the structure at issue was constructed after the Office of Environmental Impact and Risk (Dirección General de Impacto y Riesgo Ambiental—DGIRA) denied the hotel’s application for an environmental impact permit to construct the jetty. The alleged violation was reported to the Profepa office in the State and, according to the Submitter, there has been no subsequent action by Profepa.
The CEC Secretariat is currently reviewing SEM-08-003 in order to determine whether it meets the criteria for submissions set out in Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).
Articles 14 and 15 NAAEC include procedures allowing private parties to make submissions to the CEC Secretariat asserting "that a Party [to the NAAEC] is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law." The CEC has published "Guidelines for Submissions on Enforcement Matters" explaining these procedures.
In appropriate cases, and upon instruction from the CEC Council, the CEC Secretariat may examine a submission further and develop a factual record.
For more information, please visit the CEC’s "Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters" webpage.
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