Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A UNIQUE BIOSPHERE RESERVE AND TWO ECOLOGICAL SANCTUARIES ARE UNDER THREAT FROM ILLEGALLY AUTHORIZED DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN MEXICO




TO FELIPE CALDERON HINOJOSA
PRESIDENT OF MEXICO

New York Times, March 2007

The Presidential Administration of Vicente Fox left office just 3 months ago, leaving behind a well documented legacy of disregard for Mexico’s environmental laws, which translated into serious ecological degradation for the country’s natural wealth. That explains why such high hopes have been placed in your Administration, to turn that record around. However, the unprecedented complex of legally protected ecological reserves in the Chamela-Cuixmala region in México’s Jalisco coast, south of Puerto Vallarta, encompassing a Dry Tropical Forest Biosphere Reserve, a Marine Turtles Beach Sanctuary in Playa Teopa and migratory birds Archipelago Sanctuary in Chamela Bay, is under very serious threat. Veering radically from traditional environmental protection politics in Mexico, its Federal authorities have authorized, over the past 6 months, several illegal development projects right in the midst of the three protected areas, which includes delicate estuarine lagoons recognized as a Wetland of International Importance under the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and as a part of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB). What is now known about the region has led the World Wildlife Fund to consider it one of the 200 most important eco-regions in the world, and the prestigious Mexican National Biodiversity Commission (CONABIO) identifies it as a Prioritary Conservation Area. Few other sites in the planet can claim to have achieved such degree of protection, both domestically and internationally, because of their recognized environmental importance. The area is indeed one of the most biologically rich and environmentally delicate sites in the world, as evidenced by the various layers of legal protection with which it has been endowed. Yet on the Northeast of the region, the illegal construction of a highway by the Jalisco State Government, and with the open complicity of the so-called Office of the Federal Environmental “Prosecutor” (PROFEPA), is threatening the important Biosphere Reserve precisely at the place where the Chamela River, that supplies the habitat of its protected species, dry forest and wetlands, enters its territory, while on the Southwest, the illegal construction of a deceitful project called Casa Matos is also threatening the Core Zone of the Reserve as well as the above mentioned Turtle Sanctuary. Worse than all that are the “Tambora” and “Marina Careyes” tourism development projects, in the Western and Northwestern flanks of the Biosphere Reserve, and impacting both of the said Sanctuaries, which were illegally authorized in the last few hours of the outgoing Vicente Fox Presidential Administration last November the 30th. The Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, encompassing 13,142 hectares of the best conserved natural coastal areas along the Pacific slope of Mexico, where the forest and the sea converge, supports wetlands with mangrove and aquatic vegetation, as well as coastal dunes in the transition to the sea. The reserve protects a combination of habitats which stand out for their high biological diversity: more than 1200 species of plants, 270 bird species, 70 of mammals, 68 reptiles, 19 amphibians, and thousands of species of insects and other invertebrates. The Marina Careyes project, owned and promoted by Mexican banker Roberto Hernandez, (formerly owner of Banco Nacional de Mexico), is of special concern, because he has persistently tried to undertake similar illegal developments in that particular region for more than a decade. He had already submitted the project to build a marina in the Careyes area two years ago, and had to withdraw it because it was totally illegal. The strategy was to resubmit it just with another name in 2006, at the very end of the Administration and find a way to have it passed. This time, he found a way, surely an obscure and questionable one, to have his Marina project illegally authorized by Ricardo Juarez, General Director of Environmental Impact and Risk at the Ecology Ministry (SEMARNAT). Violating his solemn oath as an official to uphold the law, Mr. Juarez has authorized a project whose environmental impacts have not been previously identified as required by law and for which, consequently, no appropriate mitigation measures have been foreseen. The project is a touristic residential development that entails the construction of an artificial marina for boats and for the undertaking of a variety of naval activities, as well as the construction of more than 1025 hotel rooms, commercial areas, beach clubs, roads, infrastructure for the provision of water, drainage and sewerage, electric energy and phone service. Under almost identical circumstances and simultaneously, Ricardo Juarez illegally authorized to Operadora Chamela the Tambora project, not far North of the Marina, which involves the construction of 100 rooms in a Grand Tourism Boutique Hotel, with Spa, a Business Center, 3 beach clubs and an 18 hole golf course with artificial lagoons, and consequently the creation of roads and all the infrastructure necessary for this kind of project, which does not comply with legal requirements either. This was done in open disregard of the opposition of the National Commission for Protected Areas and other governmental entities. Independent environmental experts have demonstrated that these projects, in a site that, because of its exceptional environmental importance, should be left as undisturbed as possible, will inevitably unleash numerous and dangerous adverse impacts resulting from: · The alteration of sand dunes, wetlands, mangroves, tropical forests and marine ecosystems, which are indispensable for the maintenance of a coastal area. · The massive removal of vegetation cover and its elimination. · The loss of humidity and soil fertility. · Radically modifying the landscape and increasing the erosion and the runoff and transport of sediments. · All of the above will in turn affect the quality of superficial and ground water, causing harm to the wetland. The General Environmental Act and its Regulations on Environmental Impact, clearly demand compliance with 13 specific requirements in order to ensure that all direct and indirect adverse impacts, and their accumulated effects in the region, will be properly and scientifically identified and objectively declared in an Environmental Impact Statement, together with specific proposals for measures to prevent them and mitigate them. None of that was to be found in the Statements submitted for authorization in either of the two projects. Ricardo Juarez, the official in charge of their assessment, was warned of that by various governmental institutions and non-governmental groups, on the basis of numerous and well substantiated legal and scientific arguments. He ignored them all and went ahead to illegally authorize them Consequently, numerous prominent personalities and groups, in Mexico and abroad, have begun to mobilize to prevent such ecological crimes, demanding: 1) The immediate cancellation of the illegal Tambora and Marina Careyes permits and the suspension of any construction activity in the zone. 2) Immediate dismissal of Ricardo Juárez, ensuring that he is accountable for his acts and omissions. 3) Evaluation of both touristic projects by an independent body of experts. The legal action started today at the Secretaría de la Función Pública, against the officials involved in authorizing these illegal projects, is a vote of confidence in your reiterated public commitment to reestablish the rule of law in Mexico, a demand you are insistently getting from all quarters, both domestically and abroad. Published by Friends of the Consejo para la Defensa de la Costa del Pacifico. Mexico City, March 22, 2007.

THE CHAMELA-CUIXMALA BIOSPHERE RESERVE AND ECOLOGICAL SANCTUARIES THREATENED BY ILLEGAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN THE MEXICAN PACIFIC COAST

I . BACKGROUND. The unprecedented complex of legally protected areas in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve region in Mexico’s Jalisco coast, south of Puerto Vallarta, encompassing the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, two Marine Turtles Beach Sanctuary in Playa Teopa and Playa Cuixmala and a Migratory Birds Archipelago Sanctuary in Chamela Bay, is the result of the successful efforts of a great and unusual partnership between, on the one hand, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (“UNAM”, recognized for its excellence as the best university in Latin America and among the best 100 universities in the World) and, on the other, the Cuixmala Ecological Foundation. Together, UNAM and the Cuixmala Ecological Foundation have been able, during the last 22 years, to endow the region, one of the most biologically rich and environmentally delicate sites in the World, with various layers of legal protection, both at national and at international levels. Few other sites in the planet can claim to have achieved such degree of protection because of their environmental importance. Aside from the above mentioned Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve (which is jointly managed by the two institutions under an agreement with the Mexican Government) and from the two Sanctuaries, the complex of estuarine lagoons of the Reserve, have been recognized as a Wetland of International Importance under the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and as a part of UNESCO´s Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB). As a result of the scientific work carried out in the area by the University and the Foundation, what is now known about the region has led the World Wildlife Fund to consider it one of the 200 most important eco-regions in the world. The National Biodiversity Commission (CONABIO) identifies it as a priority area for conservation. II. PREVIOUS THREATS. Ever since those efforts were launched, it has been necessary for UNAM and the Foundation to resist the numerous threats and pressures to which the region and its protected areas have been subjected, particularly from ill-conceived touristic development projects that, typically, follow the most negative models that have, not only in Mexico’s coasts but in those of many other countries, proved to be destructive of the very natural ecosystems and resources that attract the investments in the first place. Since the Reserve was created, not less than 6 huge development projects (“El Faro”, “Farallón”, “Caracol”, “Rancho Don Andrés”, “Marina Careyes I” and others, all of them under the false guise of “green touristic projects”) had been consistently objected to by the University and the Foundation, with sound legal and scientific arguments and supported by numerous local, national and international non-governmental environmental institutions, particularly the Council for the Defense of the Pacific Coast), and invariably turned down by the authorities, always because of their failure to meet the requirements demanded by various environmental laws. Both institutions had contributed significantly, also, to the adoption for the Jalisco coast, in 1999, of one of Mexico’s most advanced Environmental Zoning Programmes (POET) in the country, whose existence and enforcement represents still another great layer of legal protection for that region. III. THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE RULE OF LAW IN MEXICO. The challenge of defending these protected areas, despite the entering into force of well designed environmental laws applicable to them, was always made worse by Mexico’s acutely precarious rule of law situation, that yields a worrisome measure of legal uncertainty and insecurity in all fields, and not only for foreign and domestic investment, as has been signaled and recognized by many financial institutions. The tremendous deficiencies in the empire of the rule of law in Mexico is recognized, from all quarters, as the number one problem facing the nation, that significantly curtails its potential for progress. The advent of democracy in Mexico did not translate, unfortunately, into the strengthening of the legal protections that had been secured for the region. The opposite occurred, since President Fox’s Administration (2000-2006) failed not only to advance in its number one campaign pledge (to restore the rule of law and the administration of justice) but, at the end of its term, had actually accumulated and earned the worst record of environmental performance in more than 20 years, failing to comply and to enforce environmental legislation and dismantling important legal provisions, particularly those protecting Mexico’s coastal natural resources, ecosystems and protected species, in order to favor unsustainable development projects. The Government’s National Tourism Fund ( “FONATUR”), with its illegal “Nautical Steps project” and other similar coastal developments such as Litibú, that have threatened Mexico’s other great protected ecosystem (the Gulf of California, known as the “World’s Aquarium”), and that also contravened a battery of the country’s most important environmental laws, are only a small part of that negative record. Numerous other equally illegal and tolerated projects and activities, that have damaged Mexico’s natural heritage in the Caribbean and in the Pacific, dramatically expanded deforestation in the World’s fourth largest country rich in biodiversity, turned its heavily polluted water resources unusable and, above all, made worse the already unmanageable problem of hazardous and domestic wastes disposal, that have devastated and dirtied Mexico, and turned it into a perilous ground for human health and for the environment, integrate also the poor record of environmental performance accumulated by the last governmental Administration. This has helped to consolidate a “pattern” of disdain for environmental laws in favor of “development” that makes Mexico, liable under the 1994 Environmental Agreement (adopted together with the North American Free Trade Agreement, “NAFTA”), to heavy sanctions by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation headquartered in Montreal. Some efforts are underway to submit such a claim to the Commission. IV. THE MARINA CAREYES PROJECT. The Chamela-Cuixmala region was not spared from the effects of such adverse policy, and is now threatened from all corners of its various protected areas. On the Northeast, the illegal construction of the highway Chamela-Villa Purificación, by the Jalisco Government and with the open complicity of the Federal authorities, specially the so-called Office of the Federal Environmental “Prosecutor” (PROFEPA), is threatening the Biosphere Reserve precisely at the place where the river that supplies the habitat of its protected species, dry forest and wetlands, enters its territory. On the Southwest, the illegal construction of a deceitful project called Casa Matos is also threatening the Reserve and the Turtle Sanctuary. By far, the most threatening are the “Tambora” and “Marina Careyes” touristic development projects in the Western and Northwestern flanks of the Reserve, impacting both the Turtle Sanctuary,the best kept crocodile population in western Mexico and the Chamela Bay Migratory Birds Archipelago Sanctuary. None of those projects have met with any of the requirements demanded by law, particularly regarding the prevention of environmental impacts, and they are all already illegally underway and with the equally illegal blessing of the Mexican environmental authorities, both by the outgoing Fox’s and the new Calderón’s Presidential administrations, which significantly pave the way for the next six years to come. The Marina Careyes project, owned and promoted by Mexican banker Roberto Hernández (formerly owner of Banco Nacional de México), is of special concern because he has persistently tried to undertake similar ill conceived developments in this particular Mexican region for more than a decade. His determination to invest and develop in the area, often in association with the Brignone family (founders of the Careyes touristic development, and sponsors of all of the above mentioned ill conceived projects, that were objected to and never authorized), disregarding the environmental importance of the region, has become a sort of stubborn obsession for Mr. Hernández. He had already submitted a project to build a marina in the Careyes area 2 years ago, and had to withdraw it because it was totally beyond the parameters set by the law. The strategy was to re-submit it with another name in 2006, at the end of the Administration. This time he found a way, surely an obscure and questionable one, to have his Marina project being illegally authorized, allegedly in the very last hours of the outgoing Fox Administration, although in reality it seems to have received the blessing in the first few days by the new Calderón Government (albeit by the same re-appointed official, Ricardo Juarez, Director General for Environmental Risk and Impact of the Ministry of the Environment). Apparently, Mr. Hernández has finally found someone who cannot say no to him, and a way to get his way. It is not only that, as a result of the illegal Environmental Impact Assessment Studies submitted for each of the projects, and of their equally illegal authorization by the Government, the delicate protected areas in the region, particularly the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, will be at the mercy of uncertainty because of environmental impacts for which, not having been previously identified, no appropriate mitigation measures have been foreseen. Even worse is the fact that, in both cases, the preparation of the sites to be developed, the construction of the projects and their operation and maintenance over the years, once they are running, are sure to have very negative specific environmental impacts. Since those specific impacts have not been identified, the sum or accumulation of them will not be met, either, with any previously prepared precautionary mitigation measures. Some of the specific and accumulated impacts will inevitably occur, some that could have been tempered or even prevented will also necessarily occur, and all of that because, on the one hand, the developers did not comply with the legal requirements to assess the environmental impacts and, on the other, the authorities not only did not enforce those requirements but went ahead and illegally authorized the undertaking of the project . V. THE MARINA CAREYES PROJECT. The Marina Careyes Project is a touristic residential development that entails the construction of an artificial marina for boats and for the undertaking of a variety of naval activities, 1,025 rooms, commercial areas, beach clubs, roads, infrastructure for the provision of water, drainage and sewerage, electric energy and phone service. All of this is supposed to happen in an exceptional, vulnerable and delicate natural area of high biological diversity, where 430 terrestrial vertebrates have been identified (as many as 80 of them legally protected) that include 70 species of mammals, 270 species of birds, 68 reptiles and 19 amphibians and 110 species of fish, together with more than 1,120 species of plants, several thousand species of insects and invertebrates, many of them protected because they are threatened with extinction already specially two species: turtles and crocodiles. Four species of turtles dwell and have their nesting area in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve’s beaches which share their borders with the future Marina site. National and international environmental laws recognize the turtles’ protected status due to the past over-exploitation of its population and are now classified as endangered specie. The constant protection’s efforts and the low perturbation which have been implemented for the past 20 years, allowed the nesting for thousands of female turtles. In the Cuixmala beach alone wich has a mere extension of 3,5 km. more than 6,000 nest sites were recorded and approximately 350,000 baby turtles were born and released into the ocean increasing the existing numbers of these decimated species which when they reach their reproductive maturity they come back to the same beach they were born to lay their eggs. The “Golfina” specie is the most common in the area and it is now responding well to the conservation programs put in place at the Teopa and Cuixmala beaches. Also other reproducing female turtles from species which are in a critical survival state are coming to nest into these two sites like the “Laud”,”Prieta” or “Carey” after which the holyday destination Careyes is named and shares its borders with the future Marina site. This year alone the biologist have released more than 40,000 baby turtles in Cuixmala and 40,000 in Teopa. Undoubtedly the building and existence of a Marina will wipe out the reproductive potential of these two well established sanctuaries. The turtles are very vulnerable to the modification of the beach’s general conditions and of the nearby areas, to boat traffic, to illumination coming from houses and tourist developments as well as towns. All this will impair their navigational and positioning skills. Last but not least the spoiling of its nests by the renown ‘”hueveros” who resell the eggs as gourmet food. The river crocodile,best known locally as “caíman”, belongs to the specie “cocodrilus acutus”, which is protected by the Mexican and international Law. It has been classified as an endangered specie and this is why it is under protection. The Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve is a sanctuary for this specie, protects it from illegal hunting and provides the natural habitat for its survival. After more than 20 years of protection, the crocodile population in the Reserve’s wetlands has shown a significant recovery concerning its numbers and structure. Today the estimated population size is approximately of 600 crocodiles, of which 40% has reached reproductive maturity. This increase allowed the re-colonization of areas within and outside the Reserve were the crocodile had previously disappeared. According to the experts, the crocodile population in the Reserve area dwells in the wetlands nearby the future Marina site where its construction and the associated development project associated with itt will dramatically change the behavior and the dynamics of the existing crocodile population in the Reserve which is the only protected area in the coast of Jalisco and as far as crocodile population and its distribution it is considered to be among the best in the Mexican Pacific coast. In the same fashion as turtles, crocodiles are very vulnerable to hunting or the perturbation and modification of its natural habitat , the nest spoiling during the reproductive period as well as to human presence and activities. A project of such magnitude, in a site where, due to its exceptional environmental importance, should be left as undisturbed as possible, will inevitably unleash numerous and dangerous adverse impacts resulting mainly from: · the alteration of sand dunes, wetlands, mangroves, tropical forests and marine ecosystems, all of which are places of refuge for species and which form natural biological corridors, which are indispensable for the maintenance of a coastal area rich in biological diversity · the massive removal of vegetation cover and its elimination will contribute to the loss of humidity and soil fertility radically modifying the landscape and will increase the erosion and the runoff and transport of sediments. · all of the above will in turn affect the quality of superficial and ground water, causing harm to the wetland. · the removed cover will deprive various animal species of their burrow, their food and habitat and will tend to disappear from the area. · habitat modification in the area where the project will be developed, which is located in the zone of influence and at a stone throw from the limits of both the Biosphere Reserve and of the Turtle Sanctuary, will inevitably impact turtles severely, given the mobility of some of the affected species. · fragmentation of the habitat will create barriers to that mobility and increase the possibilities of extinction. · roads will perform that pervasive function, and they will also modify air quality and produce several forms of pollution because of the asphalt, the dust, the oil spills and the noise from the construction equipment and the circulation of vehicles. · the added presence of tourists and workers in the region will increase access to natural resources, water consumption, generation of solid wastes, and an increment in the demand of energy, drainage and sewerage services. · that increased human presence will disturb many sensible species of animals, particularly those predators with sigil habits, such as the felines which exist in the area and are threatened and thus protected species. · birds are particularly sensitive to human presence and noise in their nestling processes, and will tend to abandon their nests, causing high levels of mortality in eggs and chicks. Many of them are migratory species that come form the United States and Canada, and their protection has been agreed through treaties with those countries that will be contravened. · to build breakwater facilities for the marina and floating docks, it will be necessary to excavate and dredge the seabed, in order to maintain the depth of the marina, which involves the extraction of materials with heavy equipment, that will have several impacts inland and at sea, altering the physical and chemical composition of its waters and altering the biota. · increased turbidity in the water will result, together with an increment in the ingestion and accumulation of contaminants by fish, a short term lowering in the level of dissolved oxygen, modification in the bathymetry that will provoke changes in the circulation of water, in habitats and in the diversity of species. · heavy equipment is likely to have typical spills of oil substances increasing water pollution. · dredging will lead to hydrological alterations that will alter the beach zone. · these impacts will produce added erosion, sedimentation, loss of vegetation and fauna, flooding and changes in the drainage of humid soils and mangrove. · the disposal of materials removed while dredging will contaminate groundwater deposits, the flow of superficial water will be altered and the use of the land will be affected. · the planned installation of a station for the provision of combustible fuels (diesel, gasoline and lubricants), with a fuel storage facility, a fuel supply dock, a net of ducts for the distribution of the product and an area for offices, will necessarily involve the threat of leaks and spills on land and in water modifying the physicochemical and biological components of the water, soil contamination, loss of habitat and risks for human health · the increase in the number of boats using the facilities of the marina, imply greater maritime traffic, with the possibility of having leaks and spills at sea, that will generate noise from their engines affecting turtles and marine mammals · the increase in the number of people coming with those boats will come together with an increase of solid wastes and the use of services. How will each of those inevitable impacts specifically happen in the area of the Marina Careyes project, as a result of the multiple works and activities that will be carried-out during each of its phases of site preparation, construction, operation and maintenance over many years, and what measures will be timely planned in order to prevent those impacts and the synergic impact of their accumulation, or at least to moderate them or ameliorate them, was precisely the mandatory function of the Environmental Impact Statement that those promoting the project were under a legal obligation to submit for authorization. The General Environmental Act and its Regulations on Environmental Impact, clearly demanded compliance with 13 specific requirements, in order to ensure that all direct and indirect adverse impacts and their accumulated effects in the region would be properly and scientifically identified and objectively declared in an Environmental Impact Statement (MIA, for “Manifestación de Impacto Ambiental”), together with specific proposals for measures to prevent them and mitigate them. The same Act and its Regulations mandated the authorities of the Ministry of the Environment (SEMARNAT) to assess compliance with each and all of those 13 legal requirements. They were nowhere to be found in the MIA for the Marina Careyes project. The SEMARNAT official in charge of the assessment of the MIA was warned of this situation by various governmental institutions and non-governmental groups. As it also happened in the case of the Tambora Project, for the Marina Careyes project the Council for the Defense of the Pacific Coast presented to SEMARNAT a well documented analysis of the MIA, with a well substantiated finding proving that it did not comply with any of those requirements. The finding was produced by prominent specialists, including one of the scientists with the greatest record of work and publications in the area, coincidentally a winner of the National Biology Award. With numerous and well argued scientific and legal arguments, the finding proved that the MIA did not comply with a single one of the above mentioned 13 legal minimum requirements, as it failed totally to identify the environmental impacts of the project and, consequently, no real mitigation measures were foreseen or proposed making the Marina project, consequently, evidently and notoriously illegal. Still, the above mentioned SEMARNAT official was somehow persuaded to go ahead and illegally authorize the project. Numerous organizations, individuals in Mexico and abroad, have begun to mobilize to prevent such ecological crime.

THE CHAMELA-CUIXMALA BIOSPHERE RESERVE - THREATENED



A.- THE RESERVE: Veering radically from traditional environmental politics in Mexico, the Mexican government has gradually, over the past many months, permitted the illegal realization of a variety of development projects, resulting in a series of unlawful acts, negligently toleranted or even perpetrated by the authorities, which now threaten one of the most conserved protected areas of tropical dry forest in the world: 1. The Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, with a protected area of 13,142 hectares, was created 13 years ago. The reserve represents one of the best conserved natural areas along the Pacific slope of Mexico, where the forest and the sea converge. The dominant vegetation is dry deciduous forest, which sheds leaf cover in the dry season, with patches of semi-deciduous forest that maintains green leaves, along the valleys and streams. The coastal zone supports wetlands with manglars and aquatic vegetation, as well as coastal dunes in the transition to the sea. The reserve protects a combination of habitats which stand out for their high biological diversity: more than 1200 species of plants, 270 bird species, 70 of mammals, 68 reptiles, 19 amphibians, and thousands of species of insects and other invertebrates. This biological richness exceeds that of many countries with a surface area many times greater. Many of these species are unique and only inhabit the dry forests of western México, and an important proportion are currently classified as Threatened or In Danger of Extinction. The dry forest is one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet, with only 5% of its original extension remaining in continental America, as a result of the impact of deforestation. In Mexico, about 20% of these ecosystems remain unaltered, highlighting the coast of Jalisco as one of the last redoubts for its continued existence. Nevertheless, in the last 50 years more than 40% of tropical dry forest has disappeared along the coast of Jalisco, and the tendencies indicate that in the next 10 years a further 90% of this ecosystem could disappear. The value in conserving this forest, as well as the species and germoplasma it maintains, radicates in the important environmental services which the forest provides, such as water capture, storage, and purification, control of erosion, soil formation and conservation, and flood control. The dry forest contributes to the production of foods, pharmaceuticals, capture of carbon dioxide, and climate regulation on a local and global scale. Added to which, the forest offers a landscape and natural area to be enjoyed. 2. This explains why, throughout the past 20 years, Mexico has endowed Chamela-Cuixmala with all the legal shields available for its protection, in accordance with national and international law: a) The beaches of Cuixmala and Teopa on the coastal zone of the reserve, have been protected since 1986 by successive Presidential decrees, until 2002 when they were declared Sanctuaries for the Marine Turtle. b) After many years of intensive research, making the area one of the most studied sites in Mexico, the CUIXMALA ECOLOGICAL FOUNDATION (with 18 years working in the region on nature conservation, supporting ecological research, environmental education, and environmental management) and the UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO (which established the Estación de Biología Chamela in 1971), promoted the establishment of the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, decreed on 30 December 1993. By means of a Convention with the Federal Government of Mexico, the Cuixmala Foundation and the National University of Mexico assumed responsability for the conservation and management of the reserve. c) In the 1999 Ecological Ordinance Plan for the coast of Jalisco, the reserve and its area of influence were protected through careful regulation of land use and the kinds of development projects and activities considered permissible. d) In the vicinity of the reserve, the islands of the Chamela Bay were declared a Sanctuary in 2002, thanks to the research, promotion and patronage of the Cuixmala Foundation and the National University of Mexico together. e) The reserve is incorporated within the National System of Protected Areas. f) The National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO), determined in 1998 that the region and the reserve form part of one of the Priority Hydrological Regions and one of the Priority Marine Regions for the country. Furthermore, in 2000 the area was considered a Priority Terrestrial Region for Conservation. g) The reserve has also been recognized as an Important Area for Bird Conservation by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, created in accordance with the Agreement for Environmental Cooperation of North America. h) The reserve forms part, since 2 February 2004, of the International Convention for Internationally Important Wetlands, better known as the RAMSAR Convention. i) The reserve also forms part, since 27 October 2006, of the International Reserves Network of the Man and the Biosphere Program of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO). 3. No other site in Mexico, and probably in any other country, more greatly deserves to be afforded every legal protection, at national or international level. 4. The reserve conserves one of the healthiest populations in Mexico of the threatened American Crocodile, implements a successful Marine Turtle protection program, and developed the first project in Mexico on the ecology and conservation of Jaguars, just to mention a few of the most charismatic species. Furthermore, the reserve protects fragile, fragmented ecosystems, including tropical dry deciduous and semi-deciduous forest, manglars and various types of wetlands, and seeks to revert the degradation of these ecosystems. Finally, within the reserve are carried out a variety of programs for scientific research, environmental education, and community outreach for social development, with active participation in regional development plans, ecological restauration, and environmental monitoring. B. THE THREAT: 1. During the last 13 years, in close cooperation with the federal authorities of the Secretary for the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), and the Federal Agency for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA), the reserve has successfully confronted the many threats arising from deforestation, habitat fragmentation, the loss of biodiversity and environmental services, illegal poaching and timber extraction. Above all, during this time the reserve has been besieged by repeated attempts to implement non-sustainable tourist developments within the reserve and its immediate area of influence. Many of these projects violated existing legal dispositions, specifically those which protect the reserve, and were detained thanks to the defense of those same legal dispositions. 2. Nevertheless, over the last years the coastal region of Jalisco has been subjected to strong pressure for non-sustainable development by some groups from the tourist hotel sector, now supported by state and federal government. Proof of this has been the work carried out in the last few years by state government on development of the road infrastructure, and infrastructure developments carried out along the coast-line. 3. The federal authorities responsible for fulfilling environmental regulations have unlawfully authorized projects which do not comply with established legal requirements. An example of this are the projects illegally authorized on the last day of government by the concluding administration, which contemplate the construction of more than 3,000 habitations, without considering the already existing 1500 habitations, regardless of the fact that the region does not have the capacity or basic infrastructure to support a development of such magnitude. The fateful consequences of these developments will be seen in the deterioration of scarce water resources in the region, affecting local populations and the food production sectors. Likewise, the tourist developments will become a factor of population growth and migration to areas which currently do not have adequate basic services, aggravating the impacts on the environment and generating social problems which have not been adequately evaluated. Everything points to a repeat of the predatory development models in other tourist regions of the country, where the enviromental and social costs surpass the economic benefits generated in the region. 4. These projects were opposed by members of civil society, providing the authorities with solid and numerous technical, scientific, and legal arguments demonstrating that their authorization would violate environmental regulations, all of which was disdained and ignored by the authorities who inexplicably and unlawfully approved the development proposals. 5. All of this was owing to the fact that during the Administration of President Fox there was a radical change in the conduct of national evironmental politics: a) The first Secretary for the Environment, Víctor Lichtinger, with a good trajectory of environmental protection, was weak before the constant pressures to relax environmental protection in favor of development. Such pressures came mainly from the business sector, which found almost unconditional support in the Office of the President. Even when the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (PROFEPA), lowered its profile during this period and didn’t venture to take strong environmental protection measures, the agency suffered strong political attacks from various business interests with political support at the highest level. b) In order to control Lichtinger, the Presidency located as Subsecretary, Raúl Arriaga (previously Environment Secretary in the Fox administration in Guanajuato), who was the bearer of the philosophy that the environment and its legislation should stop being an obstacle to investment and development. The Subsecretary maintained a tense confrontation with Secretary Lichtinger, which became famed for its severity. A series of circumstances, which have much to do with this idealogical confrontation over the role of environmental politics, quickly brought the downfall of both. On one side, Arriaga was involved in a couple of scandals for granting seriously illegal authorizations (permits allowing the killing of millions of animals and the introduction of exotic dolphins). On the other side, Lichtinger resisted a Presidential order to cease the Environmental Attorney. c) The new Environment Secretary, Alberto Cárdenas, iniciated the instrumentation of a development policy which placed environmental legislation to one side, with the determined help of the new head of PROFEPA, José Luis Luege, who nuetralized that institution. Cárdenas gathered an unprecidented record of violations of environmental legislation, which motivated a strong campaign against him on behalf of environmental organizations. On leaving the SEMARNAT, Cardenas was replaced by Luege, who in turn was replaced in PROFEPA by Ignacio Loyola. The rest of this Presidential term was a continued decline in national evironmental politics, and a significant weakening of ecological organizations. All of this occurred in the context of a marked deterioration in the record of respect for the state of law in the country, an issue which Vicente Fox claimed in his Presidential campaign, but about which he did little during his term. d) It is significant that in the context of the facts outlined above, the authorities were gradually loosing shame or fear of the media campaigns attempted to check them, which became each time more timid and ineffectual. The media demonstrated less interest in environmental issues, and environmentalists and conservationists were seen as radicals comparable to other opposition forces in civil society, such as those called “globaphobics”. e) In the middle of this, two fundamental beauracratic positions became the key for instrumenting the new policy. On one side was the Director General for Environmental Risk and Impact in SEMARNAT, Ricardo Juárez, and on the other, the Subattorney for Environmental Resources, Héctor González Reza. Both functionaries had gained the opposition of environmental organizations, the first for many illegal authorizations of environmental impact which he approved for large development projects, and the second for abstaining to apply and enforce the law in a multitude of cases denouncing attacks against the environment and natural resources. f) In these circumstances, to ensure that the authorities reject requests for authorization of environmental impact for development projects close to the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, has become increasingly difficult given the breakdown which now exists of the state of law. In the case of the project to construct a Marina in Careyes, the SEMARNAT advised the promoters that they should withdraw their first proposal, to avoid having to officially reject the proposal for failure to comply with environmental law, as was demonstrated by civil societies with abundant refutals founded on technical and legal opinions. It is now apparant that this advice came with the offer that the project would be authorized in the future. This is precisely what has just occurred with a new proposal submitted for this development project, whose authorization on the final day of this Administration cannot be explained except as the result of an act of corruption. The same occurred with a tourist development project named Tambora, also in the area of influence of the reserve, which despite having been initiated illegally and without authorization, and having been amply refuted by civil society, was illegally authorized in the first days of the new Administration (6 December), but by functionaries of the previous administration who had not yet left. g) Other construction works begun illegal along the boundries of the reserve, and denounced by civil society, have been totally ignored by SEMARNAT and PROFEPA, despite the fact that they have been provided with indisputable proof of the evironmental destruction that these are causing. These development projects go from the small development of “Casa Matos-Gil”, to others of great extension such as the construction of the road “Villa Purificación-Chamela”, all without any authorization and involving the commission of a variety of illicit activities and environmental crimes, of which the authorities are co-responsible for their negligence and cover-up, for which they are themselves being denounced. This is foreboding of a breakdown in the state of law, and a chaos in Mexican environmental politics, which will be prejudicial to the country at international level. h) The new Administration does not promise a change in the situation described above, rather all to the contrary. In comprising the new government, the forces of those responsible for environmental politics in the final PRI administrations roundly failed in their attempts to recuperate SEMARNAT and PROFEPA, denying them access to either of these positions. Instead of which, with the new head of SEMARNAT, Rafael Elvira, who as Subsecretary of Luege, was in charge of implementing the political change described above, with the Attorney of PROFEPA, Loyola, ratified in his position (and with him most probably the Subattorney González Reza), with Luege as new Director for the National Water Commission, and with Cárdenas as Secretary in Agriculture and Fishing, the augur is not promising, except of a term of severe confrontation between the Government of President Felipe Calderón and organized environmental society, and what is worse, of an Administration which tolerates destruction of the environment in Mexico.

CHAMELA-CUIXMALA Biosphere Reserve




The diversity of both aquatic and terrestrial habitats in this heterogeneous environment are such that there is a great variety of animals, including 540 vertebrate species. There are 72 mammal species, 270 bird species, 68 reptile species, 19 amphibian species and 110 fish species found in the park (Ceballos 1989; Arizmendi et al. 1991; Arizmendi et al. 2002; Espinosa et al. 2002; García y Ceballos 1996; Ramírez-Bautista y Vitt, 1997; Ceballos et al. 1999). Invertebrate studies conclude that there are 1877 arthropod species, 14 of which are in the class arachnid and 1863 in the class hexapod (Pescador-Rubio et al. 2002; Noguera et al. 1996). Among the species found in the park listed as endangered by the Official Mexican Ecological Register 059 (NOM-ECOL-059) are the green (Chelonia mydas), leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) sea turtles. Other endangered reptiles found in the park are the Mexican-bearded lizard (Heloderma horridum), the green iguana (Iguana iguana), and the American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus). In terms of mammals, the reserve boasts the jaguar (Panthera onca), the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and the margay (Leopardus wiedii). Birds found in the park include the yellow-headed parrot (Amazona oratrix), the green macaw (Ara militaris), the muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) and the least tern (Sterna antillarum). The IUCN lists the following species as endangered: A. oratrix, C. Mydas, and L. olvidacea. Listed as vulnerable are C. acutus, A. militaris, and H. horridium and as critical are the turtles E. imbricata and D. coriacea (IUCN 2002).
To see complete article +, please visit:
http://www.parkswatch.org/parkprofile.php?l=eng&country=mex&park=ccbr&page=bio

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Tourism Projects Trigger Conflict in Preserve

MEXICO CITY, Jan 17 (Tierramérica) - A golf course, hotels, luxury residences, stables and a private marina will occupy land next to a valuable biodiversity reserve in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. With official permission, the project developers have begun work, but opponents have sworn to stop them.

After receiving government approval to build in this fragile ecosystem, at the end of 2006, just as President Vicente Fox stepped down and the Felipe Calderón administration began, the developers accelerated work on their projects. Meanwhile, opponents are preparing their legal weapons, which may include lawsuits in international courts. "These plans, approved corruptly, can still be stopped," Alberto Székely, spokesman and lawyer for the non-governmental Council for the Defence of the Pacific Coast, told Tierramérica. The Council has worked to prevent unsustainable development projects near the protected zone for over 10 years. Székely said that objections to the projects would be lodged within Mexico, as well as with the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, made up of Canada, the United States and Mexico. The Environmental Impact and Risk Directorate officially authorised the Tambora and Careyes Marina projects, on the edge of the Chamela-Cuixmala biosphere reserve, in the face of opposition from scientists and other experts, including the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (CONANP). At least five similar projects for the same area were rejected in the 1990s. Among the entrepreneurs heading the projects that have just been approved is Roberto Hernández, a former banker and a close friend of Fox's. "There are countless irregularities in the way these projects were approved, which cannot be tolerated," Székely said. The Chamela-Cuixmala reserve is a tropical dry forest, 131.3 million square metres in area, with abundant flora and fauna, several of them endemic. Close by are other protected areas, including nesting beaches where sea turtles lay their eggs. According to the approval documents, which are lengthy and contain many technical and legal details, Tambora, the project proposed by the Operadora Chamela group, will occupy 6.8 million square metres of tropical dry forest adjacent to the reserve. Construction sites will cover two million square metres and will include a golf course, a 100-room hotel, residential areas, beach clubs and parking lots. The project implies deforesting 1.7 million square metres of pristine woodland. The Careyes Marina, proposed by the Imagen y Espectáculos de Lujo group to which entrepreneur Roberto Hernández belongs, will be built on 2.5 million square metres, of which 1.5 million will be preserved as a natural area. The rest will be used for a private marina, lagoons and 1,025 hotel rooms. The official permits for the projects impose certain conditions, so the developers will have to alter their original proposals, submit detailed plans for environmental management and sign agreements with the authorities, among other things. The companies are already working flat out on these points, Tierramérica discovered. Alberto Elton, director of CONANP for the western region, where the reserve is located, confirmed that he had been approached by the developers. "The people in charge of Tambora told us: 'We've got the project and we don't want to make any more fuss. Let's sit down together, and give us your help to see what we can modify to come to an agreement.'" "Now we have to make the best (cause the least damage to the reserve) of a bad job (the projects' approval)," he said. CONANP filed 29 complaints against the Tambora environmental management programme as originally submitted, including the risk posed by the project to "the continuity of the fragile local ecosystems." Elton said the Tambora project would have an inevitable impact on the biosphere reserve, recognised by the United Nations. He preferred to give no opinion on the Careyes Marina, as CONANP had not been consulted about that project. The law allows the Environmental Impact and Risk Directorate to request evaluations by other official or private institutions before accepting or rejecting a project, and to receive comments from social groups, but it is not obliged to agree with or accept their advice. The Tambora project and its environmental management plan also came under criticism from government bodies such as the Directorate General for Wildlife and the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity. Similar criticisms were made by the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which has a research centre in within the nature reserve. "We will re-evaluate the permits and give our opinion, but as far as our studies go, we would still advise that the two projects should not be approved," Tila Pérez, director of the UNAM Institute of Biology, told Tierramérica. After receiving the criticisms, the developers made some adjustments to their plans during the last few months of 2006, which did not, however, change the essence of their original proposals, according to opponents. The Environmental Impact and Risk Directorate approved the modified projects as they stood, this time without asking for new assessments. The Council for the Defence of the Pacific Coast gave Tierramérica access to the documentation on which they based their arguments that the authorities should reject the projects. In it, eminent biologists presented dozens of pages of empirical evidence against the companies' plans. The Environmental Impact and Risk Directorate acknowledges receipt of these documents and say they have studied and considered them. The companies say the same thing. But their opponents can find no significant changes in the projects, and vow to battle on until they are stopped. (*Diego Cevallos is an IPS correspondent. Originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Environment Programme.)