"The Mexican Caribbean is one of the most vulnerable zones faced with climate change," said Ignacio March, Mexico director of The Nature Conservancy, at a news conference in the Mexican capital.

Rising sea levels, predicted to increase by four to nine millimeters per year, threaten the area's exposed Caribbean beaches which already suffer frequent damage from hurricanes, March said.

They also threaten kilometers (miles) of mangroves, which "are the most effective green infrastructure for protecting coasts against hurricanes and tropical storms," he added.

The storms also leave large quantities of dead trees in their wake, which pose a serious fire risk, he said.

Off the coast, the world's second biggest coral reef after Australia's Great Barrier Reef is already suffering destruction scientists blame on warmer seas.

And the threatened Maya Forest, which stretches across Belize, Guatemala and the Yucatan, is the second-largest remaining rainforest in the Americas, the second largest to absorb carbon, after the Amazon.

The November 29 to December 10 summit in Cancun -- a massive development which is Mexico's most popular tourist destination -- will seek to advance efforts towards a post-2012 climate treaty after the near-disaster of the December 2009 Copenhagen summit.

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