Scientists, farmers, and activists are helping to restore the last Aztec Forest Xochimilco, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Xochimilco, a water forest south of Mexico City, is dying from pollution. Eleven percent of the country’s biodiversity can be found in this 6,400-acre wetland, crisscrossed by 105 miles of pre-Hispanic canals. This fragile ecosystem faces an uncertain future, as decades of pollution are leaching life from these waterways, threatening a living heritage.
The Xochimilco Wetland is considered one of the last living links to the Aztecs, thanks to the reserve’s remarkable floating farms, known as chinampas. Humans built these islands—5,475 acres of them—from the nutrient-rich soil in the canal beds, making chinampas one of the world’s most productive types of agriculture. In Mexico, they have fed the capital for millennia.
Today, some 55 tons of chinampa-grown vegetables—from beets to endemic crops like talamayota squash—fill trestle tables daily at Mexico City’s neighborhood markets and the sprawling wholesale supplier Central de Abastos de la Ciudad. According to Claudia Alejandra Ponce de León, an environmental sciences professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Xochimilco provides food and water, regulates the capital’s climate and mitigates flooding, provides jobs, and is rooted in tradition. Unfortunately, Claudia Alejandra says a toxic cocktail of agrochemicals, runoff from land-based and floating farms, and wastewater is to blame. “Wastewater is discharged from El Cerro de la Estrella and three smaller treatment plants within a 12-mile radius into the canals at an alarming rate of 2,000 liters per second. That’s enough to fill an 8-foot-deep swimming pool measuring 2.5 feet by 2 feet every second.”
According to Armando Tovar Garza, a biologist with a local conservation organization called Humedalia, the situation is being made worse by the proliferation of nitrogen and phosphorus from algae blooms made of duckweed and water lilies—the latter, introduced in the 1980s by Mexico’s then-president “for decoration,” has proven to be a problematic invasive species. These blooms cover the surface of the water, blocking out sunlight and oxygen.
“When the algae die, they settle to the bottom of the canal as sediment. This breeding ground for methane-producing bacteria then releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. According to the Canadian government, our polluted canals make migratory birds like the Mexican duck and the blue heron sick.”
Tovar Garza says ecological degradation has already brought endemic species like the axolotl salamander to the brink of extinction in Xochimilco. “The wetlands are important to preserving the quality of life in Mexico City as we know it,” he says.
The fact is that the roughly two million tourists and chilangos (slang for Mexico City residents) who visit the city each year don’t know this until they board trajineras for an afternoon cruise.
Thankfully, local activists and small businesses are trying to save this forest heritage by taking action to purify the murkiest depths of the canals.
Among the local activists is Alberto Cortina, founder of the Vitali Group, who uses his small business, Vitali Clinica Spa, to promote environmental awareness. He gave me a special interview for ScoopUSA Vizion.
How did you and the spa get involved with the community in Xochimilco?
After working in advertising, internal communications, marketing, finance, and business consulting, Alberto experienced an existential crisis and decided to start over by opening a spa that contributes to causes that protect the planet.
“We think of the spa as a way to develop inspiring spaces, and for that, nature becomes the best partner. It’s a place to relax and recharge your batteries in a rural environment full of trees, water, birds, fresh food, and a lot of history.”
What projects do you do there?
The project has a triple impact: environmental, social, and economic. One key focus is the preservation of the pre-Hispanic agricultural system, the chinampas. Of course, you can’t do it alone—you have to raise awareness among individuals, schools, companies, local communities, and authorities.
Xochimilco is an area with many challenges. It’s a poor community that tries to survive day by day. Having a sustainable project is difficult, but it requires working together with the community to align interests and visions, building trust in the process.
We operate on the principle of inspiring people, and to achieve this, we encourage our clients to be fully present and quiet their mental noise. We use various practices to foster connection with the body and mind, such as yoga, sound healing, meditation, ecstatic dance, and ancestral healing ceremonies, all while immersed in this beautiful place.
What are the main environmental problems in Mexico?
The main environmental issue is the lack of comprehensive strategies in a country with enormous inequality. You have to consider all stakeholders and address immediate needs to create space for deeper environmental strategies. Additionally, the combination of a vulnerable population and corruption in Mexico poses the biggest threat to the environment.
Mexico is experiencing economic growth but with poor environmental impact assessments. Cities like Mexico City have expanded without adequate planning, making the provision of water a significant challenge. Although some people are more knowledgeable than I am on this subject, one thing I see daily is the challenge posed by a lack of verifiable information. Many people base their understanding and actions on social media, convinced that simple measures like not using straws will be enough. We aren’t going deep enough as a society to analyze and understand how interconnected things are. We need to talk about changing paradigms, but we’re often too busy producing.
Our small contribution as a business is trying to communicate that the issues are complex and won’t be resolved overnight. But we hope that if our clients remain emotionally connected and spend more time in nature, there will be more ideas and the will to implement them.
What are the relations between Mexican climate activists and the Mexican government?
From what I can see, there are two main types of relationships between Mexican climate activists: those incentivized by government opposition to attack the current political party in power, and those funded by the government, who might be less critical because they want to keep receiving grants. It seems very polarized at the moment, making things confusing. Sometimes it seems like the current government is very repressive and confrontational with some big international groups and key individuals, arguing that they represent foreign interests. On the other hand, it seems there are more dialogues with small communities to understand how climate change impacts their survival.
This is just my personal view. I consider myself an entrepreneur with projects that aspire to have a positive environmental and social impact, not an activist.
What are your expectations for the future?
My expectations for the future of the wellness industry, which is already enormous, are that it will become an industry that, in addition to being appealing and trendy, goes deeper by addressing the roots of the issues and cause-effect relationships. It should aspire to long-term rewards rather than immediate gratification. In this way, looking after the environment becomes a logical, natural, and practical approach. I believe we will come to realize that the best way to feel fulfilled is through an inclusive form of wellness. Besides connecting with nature and wanting to hug trees, human beings will become more socially conscious.
Mexico City is one of the most populous areas in the world (with nearly 25 million people). It is also the cultural, economic, and industrial center of the country. The city’s biggest challenge is managing the needs of the growing population associated with urban expansion. In connection with this, a major concern is water-related pollution and stress caused by city development. Events such as floods, water shortages, droughts, poor water quality, and degradation of surface and groundwater are frequent. These events give rise to many critical issues, including the depletion of groundwater resources in regional aquifers; high costs related to long-distance transportation of drinking water and wastewater; inefficiency caused by substantial leakages from the water supply system; insufficient wastewater treatment capacity; lack of infrastructure for water reuse; and limited rainwater storage.
These socio-environmental problems are increasing at a rapid pace with the expansion of Mexico City. The growing population and per capita income intensify the demand for goods and services, which puts pressure on natural resources and ecosystems. This is particularly the case in the Xochimilco Heritage Zone, which includes areas of the Municipality of Xochimilco, Tláhuac, and Milpa Alta.