Environment ministers are working behind the scenes in Cancun, ahead of more talks in the coming days. <br />The city that hosts them has witnessed rapid development amid a tourism boom. <br /><br />But the rush to capitalise has been at the expense of the environment.<br /><br />Cancun used to be a natural barrier island, but its sand dunes and mangroves, nature's buffers against the elements are now decimated.<br /><br />The beaches cannot sustain themselves naturally, so powdery white sand is trucked in, at the expense of ecosystems elsewhere.<br /><br />Hotels and causeways stand where a natural waterway once nourished a lagoon, the latter is now stagnant. <br /><br />The city's open-air rubbish dump encroaches on the rainforest, several hundred hectares of which have already succumbed to Cancun's expansive development. <br /><br />Al Jazeera's Craig Mauro reports from Cancun, Mexico.
