María de los Ángeles Carvajal

María de los Ángeles Carvajal is an environmentalist working in the Gulf of California where she is creating conditions for more sustainable development through SuMar. As Mexico’s coastal regions are being excessively developed and communities are exploiting the natural resources, thus damaging the environment, María seeks viable solutions that incorporate conservation into policies and the daily decisions of coastal villages. Additionally, a new network of old players is rejuvenating small conservationist movements throughout the region about environmental protection and sustainable development.

María founded SuMar, a network of socially and environmentally conscious leaders from different sectors in the Gulf of California. SuMar is a network facilitating organization that is building alliances with environmental advocates to promote sustainable development and ecosystem management. By bringing together a network of partners that would typically work independently on separate projects, María is demonstrating how they face a common problem. Looking for viable solutions that incorporate conservation into policies and daily decisions for coastal villages is the key to rescuing the Gulf and other coastal areas from exploitive fishing practices and disturbing protected zones. SuMar works with other Conservation Organizations (COs) to promote decision which directly will benefit local people, like whale watching tours that are community-run but advertised in resorts. These types of tourism projects would create employment that directly benefits the community and connects it to the larger tourism industry. By working together on a local and national level, COs and the community can have a voice in decisions which affect their livelihood and the viability of the region. As local officials, fishermen, small farmers, and environmentalists, see that they have much more in common than they had imagined, new and effective solutions are making a difference in the region while earning them a seat at the national decision-making table. Mexico is considering a major change in laws and regulation affecting tourism and María is galvanizing support for two important elements to be included in new legislation. The first is amending laws to focus on sustainable tourist developments and not just showy investments. Bringing in major hotel resorts and world class golf courses creates construction jobs for a couple of years but then leaves mediocre jobs while profits are sent out of the region. Secondly, and more importantly, María is pushing for quantifiable impact indicators and environmental regulation to be included in the legislation. The measures, once approved at a national level, will provide focus for the local and regional networks and also leverage a more effective voice in future decisions. New legislation is likely to lead to effective implementation efforts at a local level which will strengthen the network and improve its effectiveness. SuMar also empowers the community to take responsibility over the preservation and protection of their surroundings by spreading ecosystem awareness through workshops and conferences. Allied with organizations and other communities already creating sustainable development projects, SuMar advocates for employment producing models that are environmentally sustainable and which collectively decrease poverty in the region. María works closely with another CO, the Alliance for Sustainability in the Northwest Coastal Area of Mexico (ALCOSTA), to identify, train, and gain the participation of leaders with a social foundation. This group of people acts as the basis for a negotiation campaign with the House of Representatives on sustainable tourism and coastal development. Environmental and social indicators that are successfully incorporated into law will be implemented and monitored not only along the Gulf Coast but in all coastal development projects in Mexico. Incorporating the community into sustainable tourism and using this new social conservation movement to advocate for regional development will launch bottom-up change; creating a lasting impact on national policy.

The absence of a social conservation movement among coastal communities is having detrimental affects on the natural environment. There exists insufficient technical assistance or environmental awareness education and many people believe they are not capable of reversing the ecological damage already done. The government does not involve itself in sustainable resource management, which leaves the playing field for ocean hunters open to exploitation. International conservation groups have traditionally focused their efforts in collecting data on species variety instead of policy change. While the most destructive of all practices comes from a lucrative tourism industry mismanaged by local and federal governments. Unless major reorganization of federal and local priorities takes place, coastal ecosystems throughout Mexico will continue to suffer, leading to increased local disenfranchisement.

The Gulf of California is recognized as one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet. A semi-closed ocean, the Gulf is semi-desert and owns a large portion of the diversity found in the country. There is an innumerable variety of marine and terrestrial life that coexist in a delicate balance between climate zones. Like the Gulf Coast, people in many coastal communities heavily depend upon the richness of the flora and fauna of the region dating from prehispanic subsistence agriculture to today’s massive harvests. Consequently, the environment is overexploited since low levels of educational and social participation do not permit technological reorganization. The marshlands of the Gulf are showing decreasing numbers in bird migrations and a significant reduction in fish and marine life is putting economic development at-risk.

Small and large communities that survive by harvesting natural resources are concerned with short-term economics. Exploitive fishing practices, destructive shrimp harvesting, and precarious employment such drug dealing are temporarily sustaining most coastal villages. There exists a general belief that the natural resources of the Gulf are renewable, therefore many farmers continue to exploit seasonal harvesting even in the off-season. Conservation agencies are not providing sufficient local education about ecosystem management. The lack of technical or financial resources does not permit significant change in conventional practices and regional governments do not monitor fishing practices nor do they invoke penalties for abusers.

Major development projects like fisheries and hotel resorts have traditionally been seen as a fix to community economic distress. But this new development strategy has failed. Uncontrolled development can be just as damaging to the ecosystem as extractive industries. Major hotel projects and golf courses buy large pieces of ocean front property without developing environmental impact reports. Tourism laws do not include controls or metrics for environmental impact and economic activities are not monitored in protected zones and reserves. Although lobbyists are pushing for new tourism legislation in Congress, they do so on behalf of traditional developers. The current law does not include important environmental regulations and it is not binding. The problem lies in the strong pressure to develop investment numbers by allowing projects while the government remains unaware of local consequences.

The top-down external decision-making process leaves communities leaders virtually powerless when it comes to major development. Developers with political ties and strong financial backing have the capacity to influence federal and local government authorities. They are invited into the region based on an antiquated short-term economic model. Tourism development was initially thought to bring new life to deteriorating coastal communities but major hotel resorts and world-class golf courses create only low-paying construction jobs that last a few years and most profits are not kept in the region. Towns are unable to support floods of migration based on new economic opportunities and this causes social problems. There are not enough schools and hospitals to support the growing population so the social situation worsens as economic development fails to materialize. Significant change can only begin once decision-makers become conscious of the community and the environmental impact of the growing tourism industry so that future projects can be monitored for sustainability.

After two decades of working with environmental protection in the Gulf, María recognized that conservation groups working independently could not counter the booming tourism industry and its negative environmental impact. As a result, she has created a coalition network for these groups to collaborate, as well as strategy to empower communities to address economic growth in the Gulf of California alongside ecosystem management. The explosion of the tourism industry, which has been abutted by government support, has led Gulf communities to have less and less control over their territory. By uniting environmental advocacy groups with fishermen, farmers and small business owners, and the community through her CO, SuMar, María is amassing knowledge and ideas so that environmental destruction is slowed while progress is encouraged.

María has developed a network of regional changemakers who require a major new voice in order to gain a seat at the decision-making table and become part of the policies that affect their communities. This network includes community leaders and advocacy groups, regional and federal diplomats, and international conservation groups, all of whom have a strong environmental and social consciousness. By developing a group of stakeholders who would otherwise not be involved in policy change, she is building co-responsibility amongst the different levels of beneficiaries. Service providers, media groups, private property owners, and cooperative indigenous land groups, are all joining together. SuMar is beginning a social conservation movement that will collaborate in reaching the regional and federal legislative tables.

A cadre of fifty community leaders passionate about leading the way for sustainable development is becoming the local champion for changing policy. Tourism is the best alternative to resource exploitation, especially in this region, which is so rich in cultural and geographic diversity. SuMar has identified communities that are strategically positioned to shift current business practices in the tourism industry. These villages are also working with the ALCOSTA, network, an alliance of twenty two organizations founded by María during her employment with Conservation International. ALCOSTA works in the Northwest of Mexico and has identified how each area is specifically at-risk based on the proposed development projects.

SuMar works by spreading ecosystem awareness through workshops and conferences allied with ALCOSTA and communities that have alternative development projects. For example, a community advocacy group from the southern city of San Ignacio presented a lucrative tourism strategy to a group of coastal villages in northern Sonora. They have been taking tourists out on whale watching trips where mother whales will actually come close enough to the boats that you can almost touch them and their babies. Tourists are thrilled with the experience and will pay top dollar to fishermen who would otherwise be subjected to mediocre earnings from daily fishing trips. This type of employment producing model is sustainable to the environment and is collectively decreasing poverty in the region.

SuMar is joining major actors like tourism businesses, community officials, the environmental government agency, PROFEPA, and FONATUR, the Secretariat of Tourism. Conferences on new sustainable tourism efforts are provided to municipal governments to initiate productive discussions with business owners. María uses a network gained throughout her career to bring together trained community leaders and advocacy groups so that SuMar can create an open forum for proposing solutions and protesting harmful development projects. This method is giving local actors a powerful voice in municipal governments. A bottom-up strategy, it is empowering communities to become involved in the decision-making process and creating a network of advocates, business owners, and officials, who are working together to find economically viable solutions for their communities.

Regarding national policy, the current tourism law is still being revised by the national congress and is largely controlled by mainstream development advocates. Agenda 21 is a new federal project for sustainable development; however, it is also continually being revised based on various environmental and social factors. Collaborating with large organizations like ALCOSTA, SuMar is pushing for new legislation that would provide a framework and legal protection for their work, lobbying for sustainable regulation to be incorporated into law. With ten representatives, two in each state lining the Gulf of California, there is an opportunity to have legal representation with local participation at the federal level.

SuMar is lobbying for regulations and environmental metrics to be incorporated into the law so that it becomes a tool for the network to use when considering different development projects. These measures would take power away from traditional political and business interests and focus the discussion on how proposed development projects will affect the region. In 2009 the tourism law and Agenda 21 will be reviewed, so SuMar will spend the next year focusing heavily on public policy. SuMar plans for the government to have a new role in promoting and enforcing sustainable tourism.

There are currently many national organizations focusing on environmental research, working at the community level on basic conservation efforts, and on buying private property to convert into protected land. SuMar is connecting these groups by creating a network that acts locally and nationally, connecting leaders from different sectors, and addressing major federal issues that affect the environment and local economies. María is fostering a social conservation force that can negotiate with huge development interests that negatively impact the Gulf of California and disempower local communities. María envisions responsible parties at all levels of society participating in future environmental protection efforts. María’s network has the potential to expand beyond the Gulf of California to other parts of network, and could become a regional force.

María was born and raised in a small community not far inland from the gulf coast. Her family was one of the pioneers of commercial agriculture in the region, specializing in growing grains (wheat) along with being cattle ranchers. María grew up with deep ties to the earth and to the living creatures, large and small, that inhabit it although she has always been fascinated by the ocean. After finally gaining the confidence and permission of her conservative father, she attended, on scholarship, the University of Guaymas to study biochemical engineering and later did a Master’s degree in Marine Biology. Commencing a 28-year career of environmental service, she worked on various university projects along the Gulf Coast from suspension cultivation in Guaymas and the Upper Gulf to scallop farming with Japanese technology.

In 1990 María joined Conservation International (CI) and ran their only marine program. The Gulf of California regional program operated virtually independent of the international headquarters as María raised US$1M per year from private donors. In 1996, María became Executive Director for the Gulf of California region. While with CI, María established a diagnostic strategy for long-term conservation in the Gulf as well as the Network of Protected Natural Areas. She successfully and legally established six protected areas which involved working heavily with the surrounding communities. To this day the marine protected areas continue to flourish.

One of María’s other important achievements was forming ALCOSTA, a very large network of organizations working to halt major development projects that threaten the environment. She also formed The Coalition for Sustainability in the Gulf of California, which integrates more than forty academic, government, and conservation institutions.

One of the defining moments in María’s life was the decision to leave CI after working with them for sixteen years. She gradually realized that it wasn’t enough to protect the species and to do scientific research because the region’s environment was increasingly coming under attack. She knew that only by having local communities acquire a voice in decision making and an ongoing role in protecting the ecosystem, could the damage be reversed and the region could move to a new path of sustainable development. María realized she had to start fresh. By creating a new network with old players she is rejuvenating small conservationist movements throughout the region and by uniting them, María sees infinite potential for sustainable development and a new culture of environmental protection.