Editor's Note: The purpose of this investigative feature series is bearing witness to the divergences in the region's development highlighted in the six articles. A mirror for the crucial current juncture, the series was written and edited by the directors of Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness with support from the people of the region and the sponsorship of Fondo Educación Ambiental and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Throughout the Gulf of California Region, multi-million-dollar infrastructure projects and developments recently initiated by federal and state governments, together with large private investments, make front-page news and motivate presidential visits. Among the plans, Fonatur's (National Fund to Promote Tourism) Nautical Stairway, or Mar de Cortés, mega project stands out, with its 27 docks proposed for operation by the Singlar Co.
UNESCO named the islands and protected coastal areas of the Gulf of California a World Natural Heritage site. Map: Courtesy of Semarnat.
Related to it is the construction of the first coastal highway in the north of Sonora state, running from the fishing village of El Golfo de Santa Clara to Guaymas. Other new roads and airports contribute to the economic feasibility of building skyscrapers and condominiums, such as Mayan Palace and Sandy Beach Resorts in Puerto Peñasco's environs. Liberty Cove realtors propose a tourist residential development three times the size of Manhattan. Meanwhile Sempra Energy and Shell Oil Co. are moving forward with their Costa Azul liquid natural gas terminal in Ensenada, and proposals for more such plants unfold in Puerto Libertad, as well as in other spots around the region. In the desert adjacent to the gulf, toxic industrial waste confinement sites have received federal licenses to operate. Bahia Kino is the point of entry for a series of saltwater fish and plant farms covering 100,000 or more hectares in the states of Sonora and Sinaloa. Soon to come is the expansion of port facilities serving the dynamic free trade with Asia, such as those announced by the Communications and Transport Secretariat that would convert the until now peaceful Punta Colonet in one of the Pacific Coast's biggest commercial exchange centers. For its part, the Bahia Balandra project would claim the popular beaches of La Paz as an exclusive attraction for high-class travelers. Meanwhile, Loreto Bay Co. is creating a tourist destination on 3,200 hectares advertised as the first sustainable community on the Baja California Peninsula. The mega projects have provoked unconformity and organized protests, but they have produced little indication that the clamor in the streets is heard in the offices where the decisions are being made.
Indigenous and Ejido Communities Pilot Sustainable Alternatives
Other processes of equal or greater importance are going on, which don't attract as much publicity but consist of innovative efforts worthy of recognition for the environmental appreciation they foster, the citizen involvement they achieve, and their positive economic impact. Most of them are modest but nonetheless replicable models for brushing up the economy and preventing migration. The Cucapah Indians take part in the ecotourism campaign initiated by the non-profit Ruta de Sonora by organizing traditional dances and crafts fairs. The Conca'ac (Seri) Indians share their spiritual values to inspire the tortugueros, groups that protect endangered sea turtles from the black market that threatens extinction of the species. Among the Yoreme (Yaquis and Mayos), women in the Cobanaras organization train health promoters to teach defenses against pesticides used in agribusiness. Families in the Hardy-Colorado River Users Ecological Association are rebuilding abandoned hunting camps to serve as bases for guiding bird watchers. The Ejido Luis Encinas Johnson is setting up tourist facilities at Ciénega de Santa Clara, the Sonoran Desert's most important wetlands. (An ejido is a trust-land jurisdiction administrated by a land users' council. Ejidos cover more than half of Mexican territory).
President Vicente Fox and the five governors of the Gulf of California Region announced the first ecological marine land use plan. Photo: Courtesy of Semarnat.
Lazos del Mar offers a self-help mutual fund for women of the Upper Gulf of California to borrow money for startup enterprises in a protected natural area, in order to relieve pressure on fishing resources. The Puerto Peñasco Divers Cooperative Society won the National Conservation Prize for renewing depleted shellfish beds for continued production. Meanwhile nine Baja California Peninsula cooperatives became the first business in the developing world to obtain certification for sustainable community fishing. The Ejido Luís Echeverría Álvarez, on the edge of San Ignacio Lagoon has a pioneering agreement that protects 50,000 hectares for tourism based on whale watching. Likewise, ejido members convinced the National Anthropology and History Institute to channel them the fees visitors pay for guided tours to the petroglyphs in the state of Baja California Sur. In the gulf village of Bahía de los Ángeles, ejido members are diagnosing the situation to formulate a management plan that will protect their fishing and small-scale tourism interests with the creation of a new national park nearby. In another protected area, the Pinacate and Gran Desierto del Altar Biosphere Reserve, governments, corporations, institutes, and non-profit groups are collaborating to consolidate a visitors' center. The civic organization Loreto 2025 is presenting alternatives never seen before to support decision-making about urban growth.
Northwestern Mexico has very uneven growth. The great events in the region stand out starkly from daily reality. In many places running water, sewerage, electricity, telephone, and internet are not available. Except in Baja California state's border cities and a limited number of coastal resorts, such as Puerto Peñasco, Los Cabos, and Mazatlan, the luxuries advertised abroad are nowhere to be seen. Residents can still shape the destiny of this frontier.
Ecological Importance of the Gulf Region
Not too long ago, a scientist on board a family fishing boat in the Gulf of California discovered a new species of shark. The find attracted worldwide attention—once again. With it, the number of species known to live only in the gulf increased to 91. This is one of the research success stories that occur with astounding frequency in the realm of this sea located in northwest Mexico, a matter of miles from the U.S. border. It serves as a reminder of late oceanographer Jacques Cousteau's characterization: “the aquarium of the world”.
Puerto Peñasco: Condominium and skyscraper construction abounds. Photo: Dahl McLean.
The gulf region is home to a large share of Mexico's natural riches—and therefore the planet's. Yet it is submerged in poverty. Represented here are 39% of the world's mammal species; a third of all marine cetaceans; the exceptional sum of 4,500 identified invertebrates; species of 891 fish, 695 vascular plants, and 181 birds. At the same time, the income of the bulk of the working population (66-72% of the employed) ranges from one to five minimum wage units, in other words from about U.S. $4 to $20 a day. Competition for survival is fierce, not only for species now in danger of extinction, but also for people who live here. Promoting diversity, both in wild habitats and in job opportunities, is important. In the final analysis, the latter depends on the former. Diversification of employment sources augurs conservation and natural resource protection. Fishing, tourism, agriculture, and protected areas not only should exist side-by-side, but also go hand-in-hand. The challenge is in finding the way.
In the North American collective conscience, a reference to the gulf evokes thoughts of the Gulf of Mexico in most cases, especially since the recent passage of Hurricane Katrina that caused so much damage to communities and ecosystems in Mexico as well as in the United States. The other gulf, less commanding and smaller, but of equal national and binational importance, is the Gulf of California, also called the Sea of Cortez in memory of one of its first explorers. Unlike in the Gulf of Mexico, the Mexican government has exclusive jurisdiction over the Gulf of California, which includes 40 coastal municipalities and nearly 9.3 million people in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Nayarit. The main economic activities that support human life in the Gulf of California Region are fishing, tourism, and agriculture.
For many years the region was without a cohesive conservation vision. After one congealed about 20 years ago, a period of false dichotomies followed, in which environmentalists and producers confronted each other from their differing perspectives about development. Local history has it that authorities once complacent became strictly doctrinaire. The struggle for control of natural resources created conflict. In the past decade, the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation has received a half dozen complaints from the region. Only now are historically opposed sectors opening communication and making progress as a result.
Sustainable Development Challenges Fill the Agenda
Fresh water is the common denominator in the progress of the Gulf of California Region. It determines the type of development in every locale. Desert surrounds the gulf and the rivers that flow to it. They go together like bread and soup. The sandy and vermillion hues of the dunes and mountains contrast with the sea's array of azure tints, inspiring locals and tourists alike. But how can the profits of the tourist and other industries create wealth without draining the water supply? Fishing, the most important socio-economic activity of the region, depends on that supply. Resort golf courses obliterate wetlands essential for many marine species' reproduction. Skyscrapers attract hundreds of potable water users. Inadequate waste treatment plants flush sewage into the sea. Shrimp farms promise income but depend on the same sea. Grain and vegetable crops supply markets but must draw on the rivers and aquifers for irrigation. Meanwhile agribusiness and aquaculture discharge pollutants in the inland waterways, as well as the gulf. The upshot of abusing the water supply is poverty.
Whale: Water quantity and quality influence biodiversity. Photo: Courtesy Amigos en Libertad.
Water quantity and quality influence biodiversity. When water gets low or dirty, species important for commercial fishing vanish, and the fishing industry collapses under the weight of market demands. Unique opportunities for the future of science and welfare disappear along with the species. In the effort to temper these eventualities, community management, cooperatives, and joint projects between producer groups and government have shown the most results and provided the best hopes so far.
Land tenure regimes have a lot to do with conservation of resources. With a reform at the end of the 20 th Century that created a new Mexican Agrarian Law, the ejido members, who never before could sell their plots, now can. This has produced a rush of real estate sales, encouraging people to abandon the land, and giving rise to rampant urban growth. Meanwhile, Protected Natural Areas (PNAs) have been established to halt water waste and biodiversity loss, only to fall victim to criticism for clumsy management. They stand accused of putting up barriers to family income opportunities. In response to these dilemmas, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are cooperating with authorities in new schemes to support ejidos in maintaining the integrity of their territories and setting up their own diversified companies that take advantage of protected area facilities.
Credit and investment regimes distort the development scene. Banks in Mexico loan money at 33-100% annual interest, rates that are usurious and inaccessible for small businesses seeking to take part in the economic growth of the region. In contrast, banks in the United States loan money at rates of less than 10%. Just recently they began to offer mortgages on property north of the border for purchases south of it. The gulf region is vulnerable to the whims of powerful investors with the financial edge. The winning businesses often are those designed at distant desks with no comprehension of local needs. The uneven playing field contributes to the present boom in investment by “los americanos,” as they are called here. Its most immediate impacts are on the quality of life, the coastal landscape, and tourist destinations. Add to this a long trajectory of centralized government tourist promotion based on contracts to large infrastructure building companies. The outcome is a series of onerous failures in coastal and tourist development.
Valle de los Cirios Natural Protected Area has species unique in the world. Photo: Talli Nauman.
Much of the reason for these failures is the lack of an adequate political framework. Many places have no official representation for residents. This happens, for example, where a community is a long way from the seat of government in its municipality and has no elected representative, only a commissioner appointed by the mayor. Beside the dearth of democratic mechanisms is the absence of a tradition of participation in decision-making. Many locations don't have so much as an NGO or civic group to encourage citizen input.
As it stands, the Gulf of California has become a laboratory of trial and error on the road to rescue what can yet make the region exemplary in development. Despite its disadvantages, it holds many success stories.
The Good News Comes Out
For the first time ever, the gulf region is receiving due recognition, not only for being a model development laboratory but also as the ultimate setting for researching species and representative oceanographic processes. In 2005, UNESCO named its 244 islands and protected coastal areas a World Natural Heritage site. The significance: The entire international community is responsible for taking care of it. In November 2006, the federal government decreed Mexico's first ecological marine land use plan, covering the Gulf of California Region. The decree's publication, following a two-year process launched by President Vicente Fox and the region's five governors, responded to the imperative to “revert the environmental degradation and unhealthy effects caused by productive activities.” At the very least, the plan offers a detailed chart of the region's situation. With luck it will contribute to conciliation of sector interests, establishing useful research agendas, and determining priority attention areas. Subject to these grand plans are new legal schemes on a smaller scale. They can help convert UNESCO's great ideals into reality. Of a total 14 Protected Natural Areas, the biosphere reserves of Alto Golfo de California y Delta del Río Colorado, El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar, and El Vizcaíno are entitled to the highest level of protection, including multilateral funding. The PNA of Islas del Golfo de California puts the islands under national protected status. Many of the region's swamps are listed internationally as Ramsar sites, named for the city in Iran where the agreement for their protection was signed in 1971. In addition a series of cross sector accords has opened a new era of fishing self-regulation. Above all, an unprecedented program for integrated ecosystem management of the Gulf of California is emerging.
Whale bones on the edge of San Ignacio Lagoon: A pioneer accord protects ecotourism. Photo: Helene Michoux.
Planning documents alone will not assure orderly development. With that in mind, a handful of non-profits has carried out a preliminary diagnosis of tourism development and is making recommendations based on it. Coalitions are forming to coordinate conservation efforts. This type of public participation is the measure of the documents' worth. It's what makes the difference between a protected gulf region offering prosperity and a promising future—or a gulf region trampled by land speculation and the desire to turn a quick buck. The latter leads to migration, unchecked population growth, inadequate services, crime, contamination, and misery. It's time to ante up: Take the reins, make decisions, and exercise independence or face the consequences of resource depletion and increasing dependence on foreign investment. For sustainable development to triumph in the gulf region, the enrichment of a few people cannot be attained at the expense of impoverishing the rest and their environs.
For now, many of the sustainable development efforts are foundation supported. They generate enthusiasm, and with sufficient momentum, they could build a multitude of thriving, self-financing enterprises detonating others. But it is a race against the clock. Just as in the Baja 2000—world famed as a cross-country competition due to the Baja Peninsula's difficult driving conditions and long stretches—the road is full of obstacles. If false prophets, old vices of corruption, greed, imposition, short term vision, and sacrifice of natural heritage continue, the trend will sweep up the inhabitants of unprepared gulf region communities along with it before they even know what's hit them.
Dreams Can Come True
The Baja, as they call it here, always has been a place for utopists from throughout the country. Here and abroad, from the United States to Italy, it is considered one of the last frontiers, where you can explore rocky shores, ride waves perfect for surfing, and gaze into intensely colored sunsets behind tall saguaros. It is a place where cooperative production societies set up awhile back and centuries-old traditions, such as periodic community irrigation system cleanups, meet the modern dreams of a distinct future, one in which ecotourism can provide income sources while assuring protection for cultural and natural resources. The Baja invites you to slow down, share the hidden treasure, poke around an isolated date palm oasis in the midst of miles of cactus mounds. It is the perfect backdrop for unraveling a story, like John Steinbeck did in his 1941 book Log from the Sea of Cortez or as in Fernando Jordan's 1951 book El Otro México.
"The Baja": Utopist frontier. Photo: Helene Michoux.
While most of Mexico staggers under the burden of development frustrations dating back more than 500 years to the Spanish Conquest and colonization, the Gulf of California has the advantage of municipalities established no earlier than the 1960s and 1970s, such as Puerto Libertad and Bahia de los Angeles, respectively. Another difference is population density. Baja California has an average of seven residents per square kilometer, compared to the national average of 52, according to the 2005 census. The official figures show that the gulf states account for only 9% of the national population. The region's population politics present an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others in forging future alternatives.
On the other hand, due to its geographic remoteness, the region is disconnected from major currents of socio-political activism and self-defense that have surfaced in population centers in response to the negative impacts of globalization. It also suffers from stereotypes that lead to mistakes. The so-called “Baja Boom” is a wave of U.S. pensioners with limited savings who are moving to the region for low-cost retirement locations with good climate. From Tucson to San Diego, many fall for the story that a condominium on a golf course best characterizes the region, when the truth may be that it is the worst scourge.
Knowledge and information sharing among all sectors, including foreign buyers and consumers, are vital for avoiding disappointment and for securing mechanisms that protect the many resources that still exist in the Gulf of California. This cooperation, if it is to succeed, will include Mexicans and foreigners alike. Nationality is secondary when it comes to this sensitive region's status as a World Heritage site. We need to leave behind the bad habits and intransigence in our relations with her. We just have to see how to take care of her and what to do with her.
Translated for the Americas Program by Talli Nauman.
Talli Nauman is an environmental analyst for the Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org). She is a founder and co-director of the independent international media project Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness, initiated in 1994 with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
