GUATEMALA CITY -- The leaders of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize announced on Friday that they were creating a tri-national nature reserve to protect the Mayan rainforest following a meeting during which they also discussed expanding a Mexican train line criticized for slicing through jungle habitat.

The nature reserve would stretch across jungled areas of southern Mexico and northern parts of the two Central American nations, encompassing more than 14 million acres. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the move "historic" and said it would create the second biggest nature reserve in Latin America, behind the Amazon rainforest.

"This is one of Earth's lungs, a living space for thousands of species with an invaluable cultural legacy that we should preserve with our eyes on the future,"

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