Mexico City’s environmental challenges are enormous — air pollution, water scarcity, deforestation, waste management — and the civic response has been equally significant. Ecology groups have driven some of the city’s most important environmental policies.
The EcoBici bike-sharing program, the car-free Sunday Muevete en Bici on Reforma, and urban reforestation projects in Chapultepec and the Ajusco mountains all emerged partly from civil society pressure.
Xochimilco’s chinampa conservation efforts involve local farmers, UNAM researchers, and international NGOs working to preserve the last remnant of the Valley of Mexico’s lake system. The axolotl conservation program is one of the more visible projects.