Large BC-Area Maritime Tourism Plan Could Threaten Region's Biodiversity

 
Environmental groups throughout Mexico warn that a plan to bring more maritime-related tourism to the Baja Peninsula could have an irreversible effect on marine and land ecosystems. Both the Baja Peninsula's Pacific coast and the Gulf of California (known as the Sea of Cortés in Mexico) are involved in the tourism project.

The "Grupo de los Cien," one of Mexico's most influential environmental groups, recommended that environmental impact studies be carried out and that a balance be drawn in the region between the conservation of natural resources and economic development.

Group president Homero Aridjis, a noted Mexican poet, stated that although the program is intended to increase maritime tourism it will take place in a region that is one of the most biodiverse in the world. The Baja Peninsula's Pacific coast is where gray whales reproduce and the Gulf of California, "is perhaps the richest marine zone on the continent," Aridjis said.

However, Aridjis warned that environmental organizations should not reject the plan before the results of environmental impact studies are known.

On Wednesday, February 21, a plan to integrate 22 ports and restore a cross-peninsula highway was presented to President Fox and the governors of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora and Sinaloa. The project would bring in over US$1 billion in hotel and maritime investments over a ten-year period.

According to the Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo (National Fund for Tourism Development) the program would bring 70,000 boat trips per year to the region.

This article was published on February 27, 2001 in the Frontera NorteSur, an online news provider of the US-Mexico border, which can be accessed at http://frontera.nmsu.edu. FNS is an outreach program of the Center for Latin American Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico.