ELAW Impact: Protecting Mexico`s Coasts

ELAW partners in Mexico are making exciting progress protecting whale breeding grounds and fragile coastlines from polluting energy projects and Cancun-style development. Read more about our work with Carla Garcia Zendejas, Fernando Ochoa, and Pablo Uribe.

Punta Abreojos saved from Cancun-style development

A baby gray whale near San Ignacio Lagoon. PHOTO: Fernando Ochoa

Gray whales travel 5,000 miles from the Chukchi and Bering Seas to shelter and breed in the warmth of Baja`s Guerrero Negro, San Ignacio, and Bahia Magdalena lagoons. The United Nations designated San Ignacio Lagoon a World Heritage Site in 1993. Last year, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) were submitted for a large marina, yacht club, and a cruise ship pier in Punta Abreojos, near these whale breeding grounds.

ELAW scientists reviewed the EIAs and revealed many flaws. This information, coupled with legal analysis from ELAW partners in Mexico, prompted Mexico`s environmental agency (SEMARNAT) to reject the project last year. In March 2007, responding to "upgraded" plans from the developers, SEMARNAT canceled the project again.

Fernando Ochoa, Executive Director of Defensa Ambiental del Noroeste (DAN), wrote: "ELAW scientists were instrumental in this victory!" ELAW collaborated on this effort with Fernando and Pablo Uribe at Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA).

LNG terminal threatened Coronado Islands

Storage tanks for an LNG terminal currently under construction in Costa Azul, north of Ensenada. The project was developed by and is jointly owned by Sempra Energy and Shell. PHOTO: Carla Garcia Zendejas

ELAW partner Carla Garcia Zendejas, from Tijuana, has worked for many years to protect Mexico from polluting energy projects. In March 2007, Carla and ELAW partners around the world celebrated when Chevron canceled plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal near the Coronado Islands, off the Baja Peninsula.

Carla and Fernando Ochoa from Defensa Ambiental del Noroeste are now working with ELAW to oppose the siting of another LNG terminal, proposed for Puerto Libertad, Sonora, in the Sea of Cortez. This terminal would harm the marine mammals and many species that inhabit this biodiverse region.

In December 2005, Carla was interviewed by Tyche Hendricks at the San Francisco Chronicle about the environmental impacts of U.S.-owned power plants and natural gas terminals in northern Mexico. She said: "You know that saying, `Pobre Mexico! So far from God and so close to the United States.` You can put things you don`t want in your backyard, and your backyard is us."

"We have been working together against these giants for years now. . . . if it were not for the opposition mounted on all fronts, from the media to the courts, this would not have been the outcome. They did not expect the community to opine, to be informed, to make declarations, and this delayed their enterprise completely. We did our best to educate the region and learn together. I believe this was the best part of it all." Carla Garcia Zendejas

Whales and whale sharks protected by new biosphere reserve

Fernando Ochoa announced exciting news at the 2007 ELAW Annual Meeting: Mexico`s President Felipe Calderon will sign a decree creating the Bahia de los Angeles Biosphere Reserve and the Isla Espiritu Santo Marine Park.

Fernando says this victory follows six years of hard work promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in Bahia de los Angeles. The effort was led by grassroots advocates at Pronatura, with Fernando filing a key case in 2004 that halted a proposed marina that would have destroyed whale shark feeding grounds. The decree will add 400,000 hectares to Mexico`s marine protected areas.