Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Mexico)

The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (in Spanish: Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, SEMARNAT) is Mexico's environment ministry. Its head, the Secretary of the Environment, is a member of the federal executive cabinet and is appointed by the President of the Republic. As of 2015 the appointed Secretary of the Environment in the cabinet of Enrique Peña Nieto is Rafael Pacchiano Alamán who was preceded by Juan José Guerra Abud, who was in the position from 1 December 2012 to 27 August 2015.

The Secretariat is charged with the mission of protecting, restoring, and conserving the ecosystems, natural resources, assets and environmental services of Mexico with the goal of fostering sustainable development.

Functions

The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico is the Secretary of State to which, according to Law of Federal Public Administration in its Article 32a, corresponds to the release of the following functions:

• Promote the protection, restoration and conservation of ecosystems, natural resources, goods and environmental services, to help monitor their use and insure sustainable development.
• Develop and implement a national policy on natural resources, in such that the administration of such policy is not borne by state and local governments, nor by individuals and corporations.
• Promote environmental management within the national territory, in coordination with federal, state and municipal governments, and with participation from the private sector.
• Evaluate and provide determination to the environmental impact statements for development projects submitted for public, social and private decision on the environmental risk studies, as well as programs for the prevention of accidents with ecological impact.
• Implement national policies on climate change and protection of the ozone layer.
• Direct work and studies on national meteorological, climatological, hydrological and geohydrological systems, and participate in international conventions on these subjects.
• Regulate and monitor the conservation of streams, lakes and lagoons of federal jurisdiction in protected watersheds, and protect the environment.

To carry out these functions, the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources has the following Undersecretaries:

• Undersecretary of Planning and Environmental Policy
• Undersecretary for Environmental Protection Management
• Undersecretary of Environmental Regulation
• Undersecretary of Finance of Mexico

These Undersecretaries are then charged with the operation of the following units of the SEMARNAT:

• National Water Commission
• National Institute in Ecology
• Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection
• National Commission of Natural Protected Areas
• National Forestry Commission
• Mexican Institute of Water Technology
• National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity

List of Secretaries

Secretary	Years of Appointment
Secretariat of Fisheries
Fernando Rafful Miguel	1982
Pedro Ojeda Paullada	1982–1988
María de los Angeles Moreno	1988–1991
Guillermo Jiménez Morales	1991–1994
Secretariat of the Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (SEMARNAP)
Julia Carabias Lillo	1994–2000
Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT)
Víctor Lichtinger	2000–2004
Alberto Cárdenas Jiménez	2004–2005
José Luis Luege Tamargo	2005–2006
Juan Rafael Elvira Quezada	2006–2012
Juan José Guerra Abud	2012–current

See also

• National Forestry Commission of Mexico

External links

• Official Mexican Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources website — (Spanish)
• Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense