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Scientific reports are rarely kept. But sometimes, the research itself becomes a true story that sparks conversation far beyond the academic world.
That’s what happened in Xochimilco, in Mexico City.
By 2025, the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) publishes a report on interconnected risks.
The report questions why society is having difficulty making the changes needed to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. One conclusion: society must think beyond the short term and consider the well-being of future generations.
To make this idea a reality, the researchers turned to Xochimilco. For centuries, chinampas have cultivated chinampas – fertile fields built in wetlands that produce food while preserving knowledge passed down from generation to generation.
Today this living heritage is facing urbanization, environmental degradation, climate change, and the shifting relationship between young people and the land.
The result is a documentary film, Chinamperos: Preserving Ancestral Agricultural Practices in Mexico Citydirected by Mexican filmmaker Rodrigo Jardón Galeana and shot in San Gregorio Atlapulco.
The goal is simple – take a scientific report from the page and show what it means to the people involved in the report in real life.
A farmer in Mexico tends his crops
A resounding call
Mariana Páez, one of those featured, shared the film on social media in the hope that it would be seen by family, friends and neighbors. On the other hand, he also heard from people he hadn’t spoken to in years.
Among them are Karen Ramírez and Abel Bastida, former school friends with different career paths who share an interest in the places they grew up. A video call that was planned to be 20 or 30 minutes long turned into almost two hours – farming, food, traditions, water, the problems they saw around them.
“We couldn’t stop talking,” Ms. Paez.
Those conversations led the three to found the Permanent Seminar for Xochimilco Studies, or SEPEX, to open a dialogue about the region and its culture. A film intended to communicate research has sparked a local conversation no one has ever seen before.
Finally heard
The documentary has been screened at COP30 in Brazil and at festivals in Spain, Greece, Turkey and the Czech Republic. Our colleagues at UN News The Spanish team also told the chinampiros story in April 2025.
However, for Ms. Páez, the most important impacts occur in the surrounding environment. In her own family, the film brought greater recognition to Indigenous work and knowledge that is not always valued as much as other professions.
One of those featured, chinampero Samuel Avelino, died earlier this year. Ms. Páez later discovered that a screenshot of UN News The story that led to his testimony was one of the last things he shared on Facebook.
“He felt heard,” she said.
This is important, he explained, because the daily lives of Chinese people rarely extend beyond their own neighborhood. It’s rare for outsiders to ask what it’s like working the land every day.
Samuel Luna
Back home
More than a year later, the film returned to Mexico. SEPEX helped organize a visit to Xochimilco for representatives of the University and the United Nations in Mexico, and screenings followed at the National Arts Center and the Metropolitan Autonomous University.
Residents, researchers, students, UN staff and city officials gathered. The aim is not only to show films, but so that people can talk directly with researchers and decision makers.
“Xochimilco is a lively area,” said Allegra Baiocchi, who UN Resident Coordinator in Mexico – a place where biodiversity, water management, climate adaptation, food security and ancestral knowledge meet.
For Shen XiaomengVice Chancellor of Universities in Europe and Director of UNU-EHS, this trip was an opportunity to give something back.
Meeting chinampero Eric Enríquez, he noted his pride when talking about his work. Farmers’ survival, he says, depends on how much society values them – but everyone depends on those who grow our food.
Xochimilco, located in Mexico City.
A window, not a solution
Ms. Ramírez sees this film not as a solution but as a “window.” This is a way to see what might happen before deciding what to do. He wants the film to be shown in more neighborhoods and public spaces in Xochimilco, with children taking part in the discussions.
Mr. Bastida emphasized that Xochimilco is not just a landscape that needs to be preserved. People live there, with different needs and different visions of the future.
The documentary does not resolve these differences. But it has done something less obvious, and perhaps necessary before any solutions emerge: creating a place where people can meet and talk about the same things.
