RAMSAR: Protecting Mexican Wetlands
AIDA Calls for Protection of Mexican Wetlands
Imagine a resort the size of 4746 soccer fields built near ecologically sensitive wetlands that host ten percent of Mexico’s remaining mangrove forests. Welcome to Costa del Pacifico (CIP), a mega-resort that the Mexican government is planning to build near Mazatlan. The government hopes to attract three million visitors to the tourism complex and its four golf courses by the year 2025.
AIDA seeks to protect these wetlands and the sixty endangered species that live there from the proposed development. In June, we submitted a petition to the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty aimed at wetlands conservation. Five other environmental organizations co-signed the petition, including the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) Greenpeace Mexico, WiLDCOAST, the Alliance for Northwest Coast Sustainability (CONSELVA) and Red Manglar Internacional.
The proposed CIP resort is located at the edge of Marismas Nacionales and in close proximity to Laguna Huizache-Caimanero, both of which are classified as “wetlands of international importance.” These wetlands are bio-diversity hot spots that support an astonishing array of birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles and plants, many already endangered or threatened.
To provide water and electricity to resort guests, the Mexican government proposes building one dam, in the San Pedro River called Las Cruces, which would sharply reduce water flow to the Marismas Nacionales wetlands which would isolate the river from its floodplain, turning it into a reservoir-river that would fragment river-based ecosystems and disrupt animals’ movement and migration patterns. Further impacting fresh water resources in the region,.the government plans to divert substantial amounts of water from the Presidio River for irrigation, an action likely to reduce the water level in nearby Laguna Huizache-Caimanero.
Substantial amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers are likely to be applied to the resort’s four golf courses and extensive landscaping. Toxic runoff from these areas would contaminate the wetlands, potentially poisoning many animal species and creating oxygen-starved dead zones devoid of life.
All these different impacts combined would likely cause extensive damage to the mangrove forest. Mangroves are barrier ecosystems that shelter coastlines from the impacts of climate change. Mangrove ecosystems also serve a critical role as nurseries for breeding fish and migratory birds. Marismas Nacionales, for example, harbors more than 100 species of migratory birds,. Other endangered species in the area include the puma, jaguar, river otter, collared peccary, white-tailed deer, American Crocodile, Boa constrictor, and Mexican Beaded Lizard.
Although national and international law calls for the preparation of an environmental impact assessment for projects affecting designated wetlands such as these, along with consideration of the combined impacts of different projects, no such assessment has been done to date. (Consultants did prepare an environmental impact statement for the Las Cruces mega-dam only).
AIDA is calling upon the Ramsar Secretariat to exercise its authority to engage in dialogue with and offer technical assistance to the Mexican government and ensure that authorities conduct a thorough environmental review. Ramsar might also request a commitment from the Mexican government to closely monitor the wetlands and to designate other areas as protected wetlands to compensate for the loss of habitat due to the CIP development. We hope the Secretariat’s involvement will result in modifications to the proposed projects and thus prevent many of the harmful impacts discussed above. (See the attached document for AIDA’s full report to the Secretariat).
See also RAMSAR.