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…
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Scoopvizion (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2024