- In the southern Mexican state of Tabasco, most residents of the El Bosque community have been relocated after their homes were destroyed by coastal erosion.
- Community members have expressed concern about job security, as the new site is 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) away from the sea and residents cannot as easily fish, which they depend on for their livelihoods.
- While planned relocation has emerged as a critical strategy to protect those impacted by climate change, reports have shown relocation does not always reduce socioeconomic pressures.
- Although fishers from El Bosque are concerned about the impact of the relocation on their livelihoods, some see it as an opportunity for younger generations to seek alternative livelihoods and better opportunities.
After sea level rise significantly ate away at their town, most residents of Mexico’s El Bosque community have been relocated by the government. However, the residents, who mostly depend on fishing for their livelihoods, are now concerned about job security, as the new site is 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) away from the sea. It’s the latest challenge that makes small-scale fishing in the region difficult.
El Bosque, which is located on a small, thin peninsula where the states of Tabasco and Campeche meet, is one of several communities that have been affected by coastal erosion due to sea level rise in Latin America. From 2019 to June 2024, at least 70 homes in the community were destroyed by the sea. At least 6.6 million people around the world were displaced by climate-related disasters by the end of 2023.
“I am happy because we are no longer worried about whether the north winds will come and where we would have to go,” Yessenia del Socorro Albina Sánchez, a resident of the new relocation site, told Mongabay over WhatsApp. “Calm, but a little affected by the change of location for our work.”
Most residents have dedicated their lives to fishing. “Even though we have been relocated, the people here are not going to stop being fishers,” said Apolonia Cantú Sánchez, another relocated resident. They travel back to El Bosque each day to continue the same job they had before.
Fishers in the Tabasco region have struggled in recent years because of unfavorable weather conditions caused by the north winds, the overexploitation of key species and other factors, such as the creation of exclusion fishing zones and the use of explosives by the offshore petroleum industry.
“Production is low, partly because of the bad weather we are having and because of the Pemex [oil] platforms,” Juan Demesio Loeza de la Cruz, the owner of the warehouse in El Bosque where fishers drop off their catch, told Mongabay over a phone call. The oil company is “exploring about four or five miles from the coast. You can hear bombing from where they are exploring and throw dynamite. That has a huge impact on production.”
Although fishers from El Bosque are concerned about the impact of the relocation on their livelihoods, some see it as an opportunity for younger generations to seek alternative livelihoods and better opportunities.
‘For us, it’s 100% fishing’
Rubisela Mayoral Cobos (Rubi) moved into the new site, known as Nueva Colonia, with her family in November. Her husband is a fisher and she is currently unemployed, meaning they depend entirely on his income to survive. Like most members of the community, her husband kept his job in El Bosque and she drives him to work every day by motorcycle.
“The location is super good but adaptation has been a bit complicated because people don’t know how to do anything else but fish, and we don’t have the sea nearby,” she told Mongabay over a phone call. “Most [residents] have no education and there are almost no jobs. To find a job, you need to have at least a high school or secondary education, which the people of El Bosque don’t have.”
These concerns were echoed by Albina Sánchez who has also been affected by the lack of employment options at the new site. “There is very little work for us here,” she said. “For us, it’s 100% fishing. It is not a sport for us or something to pass the time. No. It is our way of life, our income. Everything depends on fishing.”
Before her family relocated, Albina Sánchez worked in the fishing industry. Now, she stays at home to take care of their kids while her husband travels to El Bosque each day to fish. “It’s not the same,” she explained. “We had the chance to work because our children went to school in the same community, but that is not possible here. How do you get around with your children? How do you do it with school?”
While the planned relocation of communities away from areas of climate-related risk has emerged as a critical strategy to bring safety and security to those impacted by climate change, reports have shown relocation does not always reduce socioeconomic pressures. In some cases, relocated communities struggle to establish sustainable livelihoods and choose to return to their risk-prone homes.
According to a U.N. refugee agency guidance document on protecting people from disasters and environmental change through planned relocation, “States should ensure at a minimum the restoration, but ideally the improvement, of livelihoods of Relocated Persons as both a matter of right and as an essential component in preventing impoverishment.” But this is not always the case.
In 2005, Indigenous communities from the Mexican state of Chiapas were forced to relocate because of the devastating effects of Hurricane Stan, which left 92,000 people displaced and destroyed up to 50,000 houses, according to a study in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. Communities were eventually relocated but, because the government did not consider employment, the consequences were “severe” and led to the disruption of cultural ties and livelihoods, the study said.
“Stable and sustainable livelihoods are essential to consider in relocation,” Annah Piggott-McKellar, a research fellow who studies climate adaptation at the Queensland University of Technology, told Mongabay over email. “But what this looks like, and whose responsibility it will be, vary case by case. Ultimately these decisions must occur in meaningful collaboration with the relocating population.”
An opportunity for the young?
Fish production volumes have dropped dramatically since 2017, the “boom time” for fishing in Tabasco. That year, production exceeded 53,000 tons, whereas in 2023, Tabasco produced only 28,601 tons, according to official figures from the national fisheries commission.
“Right now, we have not been able to work since Dec. 2 or 5,” Loeza de la Cruz said. “It affects my whole family. Here in El Bosque, we depend on that work.”
The drop in production has been caused by increasingly bad weather conditions, the overexploitation of key species, the creation of exclusion fishing zones and the offshore petroleum industry. Fishers have been expelled from certain areas and have to travel farther to catch snook (Centropomus undecimalis), horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), sea bream (Archosargus rhomboidalis) and other species, such as sharks and shrimp.
“Fishing has become so scarce so [fishers] have to go many miles further out, risking their lives for many more days,” Albina Sánchez said. “Before they would go for 3 days, now they go for 4 or 5 days, sometimes up to ten days at sea. The income is not the same and there are not as many fish.”
Fishers have had to survive for years with barely enough income to pay for gasoline or to maintain their equipment, boats and engines. Faced with these challenges, relocated residents hope younger generations will take advantage of the situation and seek alternative opportunities.
“We [adults] are already in this position,” Rubi said, “but the idea is that the new generation does not dedicate themselves to fishing.”
For the older generations, adapting to new jobs is more challenging, Albina Sánchez said. “Fishing has always been their life. Perhaps, for younger people, there are more opportunities [in the new location]. They will have to dedicate themselves to other types of work because they will no longer have that freedom to fish.”
Banner image: The El Bosque community in Mexico’s Tabasco region has been swallowed up by the sea. Image by Juan Manuel Orozco.
Citations:
Felipe Pérez, B., & Tomaselli, A. (2021). Indigenous Peoples and climate-induced relocation in Latin America and the Caribbean: Managed retreat as a tool or a threat? Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 11(3), 352-364. doi:10.1007/s13412-021-00693-2
Montejo-Damián, K. C., Díaz-Perera, M. Á., & Espinoza-Tenorio, A. (2022). The social construction of risk: A local perspective of the vulnerability of artisanal fisheries to climate change. Coastal Studies & Society, 1(1), 55-77. doi:10.1177/26349817221080864
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