gray whale conservation and local tourism …

GRAY WHALE CONSERVATION AND LOCAL TOURISM MANAGEMENT IN BAHIA MAGDALENA, BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO Lourdes Flores-Skydancer Comunidad y Biodiversidad, A.C. (México) Abstract: Gray whale watching activities in the coastal lagoons of Baja California Sur, Mexico were promoted by both Mexican and foreign brokers in the early '90s. Although the activity allowed a new economic alternative for the fish-ermen in the region, the Mexican Ministry of Fisheries and the Environment (SEMARNAP) became concerned with the rapid increase of a tourism industry related to a species that, until 1993 had been on the endangered species list. In the management of whale watching, SEMARNAP allocated a limited number of per-mits to local fishermen and others to provide whale watching services. The lack of organiza-tion within the fishing cooperatives to provide services, coupled with the overwhelming number of visiting tourists, resulted in low quality ser-vice to the tourist, sub-utilization of the re-source, and inter-institutional conflicts. In addi-tion, it was feared that whale watching could possibly threaten the long-term conservation of the whales. With this situation, the management problem concerned the protection of the gray whale, while providing social and economic development through whale watching in the communities adjacent to the Bahía Magdalena coastal lagoons. With the support of Pronatura, A.C., a large Mexican Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), a project was coordinated to develop a proposal for integrated tourism management. Community participation was the main focus of this project. As a result of the project, a need to develop re-gion-specific tourism promotion strategies was identified, as well as the need for specific man-agement measures to protect the whales in each lagoon. The communities made a commitment to participate in the development of the tourist ac-tivity within the framework of sustainability.

These results illustrated the first step in com-munity organization toward obtaining regional benefits in using an irreplaceable and valuable marine natural resource within the Magdalena lagoon complex. The process demonstrated that NGOs can be influential in the generation of policies involving the tourism and fisheries in-dustries. Keywords: community development and coor-dination, conservation, whale watching, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Introduction In the region of Bahía Magdalena over the past decade, tourism has grown dramati-cally by brokers’ increased efforts in the ad-vertising of whale watching. From the win-ter season of 1996 to the season of 1997, there was an increase in tourism of 19% (Sánchez, 1997). The two main coastal fish-ing communities of Bahía Magdalena, Puerto San Carlos and Puerto Adolfo López Mateos, were not prepared to receive mas-sive tourism. Meanwhile, the gray whale is still being strictly monitored after it was delisted from the endangered species list in 1993 (MMC, 1994). Although several efforts were made by the Mexican Ministry of Fish-eries and the Environment (SEMARNAP) to establish low impact whale watching, the regulations conflicted with the possibilities for economic development of the fishermen providing the service. In 1997, in an attempt to ensure conservation and economic devel-opment, Pronatura, A.C., a large Mexican non-governmental organization (NGO), de-veloped a method for local participation in search of a solution to this conflict for the

Flores-Skydancer 268

long term conservation of the gray whale and the associated whale watching industry. Geographic Area The Bahía Magdalena Lagoons Complex is located approximately between 24 and 26 degrees N, on the Pacific side of Baja Cali-fornia Sur, the southern state of the Baja California Peninsula, México (Figure 1). The complex is formed by a series of lagoons and narrow channels, bordered by barrier and large islands. The northern part of the complex is a series of narrow channels, es-tuaries, lagoons and barrier islands. The average depth in this area is 33 ft. The community that uses this area is mainly the fishing town of Puerto Adolfo López Mateos, located along the península of Baja California, with an approximate population of 1000. The second part of the complex is composed of a series of channels and a big lagoon: Bahía Magdalena. This area is mainly used for fishing by the communities of Puerto San Carlos on the península, with an approximate population of 3000, and by Puerto Magdalena with a population of 800, located on Magdalena Island. The third and southernmost part of the complex is formed by a series of lagoons, the larger being Bahía Las Almejas, and to the south, Bahía Santa Marina, bordered by Santa Margarita island and Creciente island respectively. This southern part is mainly used by the fishing community of Puerto Chale located on the península with an approximate population of 300, and the Puerto Alcatraz and the Na-val community of Puerto Cortés on Santa Margarita Island with no more than 200 people respectively. Every year, during the months of January through March, the gray whale arrives to the Baja California’s coastal lagoons to mate and give birth. The complex has been desig-nated as a site of high priority for conserva-tion by national and international organiza-tions (CONABIO- PRONATURA, 1996), not

only because of the presence of the gray whale, but because of the richness and health of its vast array of mangrove chan-nels. This area, being one of the last non-modified wetlands along the Californias (Young and Dedina, 1993), allows for the diversity of flora and fauna that use the complex, most important for resident and migratory birds, as well as for the fishing industry (Casas and Ponce, 1996). Background At the beginning of the present decade, gray whale watching tourism started to become popular, offering an economic alternative to small scale fishermen in the Bahia Magda-lena lagoons. The rapid growth of tourists visiting the area prompted the Mexican au-thorities to take emergency regulatory measurements to conserve the breeding ar-eas of the cetacean, which until 1993, has been on the endangered species list (Marine Mammal Commission, 1994). The Mexican Government, having been a pioneer in declaring the breeding lagoons as Sanctuaries and Refugees for this species of marine mammal (Diario Oficial, 1972a; 1972b; 1979), became concerned with the rapid growth of tourism visiting the area. Through the publication of a temporary Emergency Law (Diario Oficial, 1996), the Ministry of the Environment, Natural Re-sources and Fisheries (SEMARNAP) estab-lished several guidelines in 1996 to regulate the whale watching activity. These guide-lines were the establishment of regulated whale watching zones inside the lagoons, regulation of the number of boats allowed to be used in the whale watching zone at any one time, and regulation of the type of boat used for the activity. The only type of boat authorized for whale watching was the kind used by the local fishing fleet, a 20-24 ft skiff with an outboard motor. It also became


Figure 1. Bahia Magdalena region on the Pacific side of the Baha California Peninsula


mandatory for outside companies to con-tract the service through local fishermen, who usually are the owner/ operators of the skiffs (Sánchez, 1997). Lack of coordination between government institutions and the historical conflict for the use of the natural resources within the local fishermen (Young, 1995) prompted a series of irregularities and disorganization in the development of the tourism activity.This situation manifested itself with the dissatis-faction of the tourist, who had to use the small skiff which often lacked certain safety equipment. At times, tourists did not have proper interpretation due to lack of local bilingual guides. Also, sub-utilization of the permits was a result of disorganization. For example, sometimes, many tourists had to wait for long periods of times to board a skiff, while other times skiffs and the per-mits were not used at all (Sánchez, 1997). Inter-institutional and intra-community con-flicts were also ongoing. In addition, it was feared that the situation could be seriously threatening the conservation of the gray whale population through disturbance of the species during the mating season. Previous efforts were made by govern-ments, academics and groups of nongov-ernmental organizations to call attention to the problems associated with the whale watching. For example, Conservation Inter-national produced a film to present to all stakeholders about the controversies of gray whale watching. In a report by Dedina and Young (1995) presented at the Marine Mammal Conference in Baja California Sur, the need for inter-institutional and commu-nity coordination was again noted. Com-munity participation was required during meetings called by government agencies each year before the gray whale season. Lo-cal fishers, now brokers, and representatives of local tourist companies were asked for suggestions and proposals to organize the activity. Some of their suggestions have been written in several documents (Plan de Desarrollo Turístico de La Paz, 1993; Plan Municipal de Desarrollo, 1996). Several of

those suggestions have been implemented, while others were incorporated into the writing of the Emergency Law (Diario Ofi-cial, 1996). Still other suggestions are con-tradictory or controversial for certain stake-holders, and some have had no follow-up. For example, in an attempt to prepare fish-ermen for the whale tourism, Pronatura, A.C. and the Mexican Ministry of Tourism supported a nonprofit organization, The Rare Center for Tropical Conservation (RARE) in an effort to provide nature guide training courses to the fishermen. However, these efforts were not integrated into a gen-eral participatory program. Therefore, Pro-natura, A.C., a large Mexican non-governmental conservation organization, set to the task of playing the role of coordinator to develop a community-based proposal towards tourism management and conser-vation in Bahía Magdalena, a proposal that would ensure social equity and resource conservation. The Process Toward Local Tourism Management 1. Searching for the latest information, inte-

gration of an interdisciplinary team Existing information was gathered and new studies were conducted on the different as-pects that needed to be put together to de-sign an integrated proposal. The new infor-mation consisted of a study on the distribu-tion of gray whales that visited the lagoons in the winter 1996-1997 season. To conduct this study, a team was formed with re-searchers from the Marine Mammal group of the Autonomous University of La Paz (UABCS), and with researchers from the Regional Center for Fisheries Research in La Paz (CRIP). The team at UABCS had been doing gray whale distribution research in San Ignacio lagoon prior to 1997 (Urbán and Gómez, 1995, 1996), while the team at CRIP have been the only institute to have conducted studies on gray whales in Bahía Magdalena.


At the same time, Pronatura, A.C. promoted coordination with the Center for Wetland Studies, based in Puerto San Carlos, a field station which was willing to collaborate with infrastructure and human resources. Another study that aimed to obtain and in-tegrate other new information was a socio-economic assessment of the two main fish-ing communities that inhabit the coastal zone of the whales’ winter breeding la-goons. The communities of Puerto Adolfo López Mateos located in the northern area of the lagoon complex, and the community of Puerto San Carlos located along the mid-dle section of the complex, were selected because they provide the majority of the whale watching service. Pronatura, A.C. also collected data made available by the Ministry of Tourism on the permits used by fishermen in the Magda-lena lagoon complex during the winter sea-son of 1996-1997. The information analyzed related to the number of persons that visited the area in the season, number of skiffs that were whale watching at the same time in the lagoon, time of day with higher demand for the whale watching service, and days and weeks which illustrated higher demand. The information gathered about the dynam-ics of the whale watching activity, together with the data of the study conducted by UABCS-CRIP, and data from the socioeco-nomic study, were reviewed during a round table on July 7, 1997 at the CRIP library in La Paz. Only the main researchers and ex-pert consultants participated during this stage. During this work, many proposals were made to modify the temporary Emer-gency Law (Diario Oficial, 1996) based on the new data generated. This information was the basis for the next step: designing an interview and providing data-based infor-mation to involve all stakeholders. 2. Designing a preliminary management pro-

posal: integrating all stakeholders Based on the results obtained from the round table with researchers, an informa-tion base and an interview were developed.

Information was presented and the inter-view was applied to individuals in the fish-ing communities of Puerto San Carlos and Puerto Adolfo López Mateos. Representa-tives of the different sectors were selected from the communities to make it representa-tive (Fowler, 1990). The results of these first interviews were added to the original list of proposals for modification of the temporary Emergency Law and new proposals for tourism man-agement were generated. Based on the new list of proposals, a second interview was prepared. The second inter-view contained proposals for management and opportunities for action, on which the interviewees could elaborate and either sup-port some of them or give their own points of view. At this stage, forty-five interviews were made by fax, telephone, or in person in the communities of Puerto San Carlos and Puerto Adolfo López Mateos again, and also to the La Paz and Mexico City stakeholders. With the results of the second interview, the importance of certain proposals of man-agement and the action opportunities were corroborated and new proposals were gen-erated. 3. Testing different proposals: providing multi-

ple tourism management scenarios With the objective to evaluate the impor-tance of tourist activities during the gray whale mating season in each of the commu-nities of Puerto Adolfo López Mateos and Puerto San Carlos, a series of scenarios were designed for evaluation. The different tourism management scenar-ios were evaluated quantitatively by Pro-natura, A.C., using data generated for the distribution of the gray whale in the la-goons, and data generated on the socioeco-nomic conditions in each one of the towns involved. The evaluation of scenarios was achieved through the environmental, social and economic criteria.


In addition to the interview, the responders were asked to evaluate several tourism management scenarios in qualitative form. A document with the summary of results was produced. This document would be the basis for the discussion of the integrated whale watching tourism management pro-posals. The document would be presented during a community workshop in each one of the participant communities. The docu-ment integrated proposals from all sectors involved. 4. Presenting the information to the community:

community workshops In order to present the information gathered for the integrated tourism management pro-posals, a workshop was planned for each of the two participant communities. To ensure attendance of the largest number of people, an intense one on one invitation campaign was organized and conducted. To achieve this, Pronatura, A.C. hired a campaign coor-dinator, a person that was well known to the communities before. The coordinator announced the event two weeks before the workshop by going home to home to visit people, broadcasted the event on the radio, and the mobile media information system in both communities. Different stakeholders including fishermen and representatives of government and pri-vate industries were invited. Some of them had been participating before as interview-ees, others had only heard about the project by word of mouth. Taking into account the traditional conflicts among the fishing cooperatives and among individuals in the area, Pronatura, A.C. hired a professional mediator with experi-ence working with fishing communities to conduct the workshops. During the workshops, the proposals that were compiled though the previous process were presented. These proposals were ana-lyzed with the audience under different mediation methods and opportunities were then identified. Through negotiation dy-

namics, the participants established consen-sus on opportunities that were a priority for the benefit of the communities which pro-vide whale watching services. The partici-pants initiated dialogue toward an inte-grated tourism management proposal. Results and Discussion The method used for community involve-ment can be summarized in the model pro-posed by Flores (1995) for local coastal community involvement in marine conser-vation projects (Figure 2). In this model, the management agency may have the control on the information generated and distrib-uted by the researchers. The non-governmental organization can function as an interpreter, getting all the parties to-gether, and searching for key community members. In the process described in this paper, the NGO Pronatura, A.C. functioned as the main interpreter by bringing together researchers and community members to-wards a common goal: the economic benefit for the communities by using and conserv-ing a valuable marine resource: the gray whale. Processes to involve communities have to be done in several steps if support is to be gained from them. Sometimes, the processes involve long periods of time only to find the ways of communicating (Flores, 1995; Sky-dancer, 1995; Collinson and Shultis, 1999). As a result of the community involvement process in Bahía Magdalena, alternative tourism management proposals for the eco-nomic benefit of the region’s inhabitants were proposed by the community and in-volved stakeholders. This type of proposed management scheme has the benefit of re-ducing the costs of enforcement and there-fore, reducing the threats to the resource, since it is directly in the benefit of the com-munity itself to respect the self-imposed


Figure 2. A model for involving local coastal communities in marine conservation projects

RESEARCHER ACADEMIC

GOALS INTERPRETER

CONSERVATION

EDUCATION GOALS

KEY COMMUNITY MEMBER

PERsONAL GOALS

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS

NGO's

MANAGING AGENCY

MULTIPLE GOALS


regulations. In some cases it has been dem-onstrated that involving the communities directly in the design and implementation of conservation strategies for the resource management, makes a difference in success (Western and Wright, 1994). In addition, as the locals become brokers, according to the model of Miller and Auyong (1991), the dynamics of their rela-tionships with the tourist and the environ-ment change. During the process presented in this paper, some changes in attitude were noticeable by the end of the workshops, where members of the communities en-gaged in certain commitments. During the workshop at Puerto San Carlos, the representatives of the fishing coopera-tives that provide whale watching tourism services, made a compromise to write a document to propose modifications to the Emergency Law for the regulation of the tourist activity. The proposal would include consideration of both communities in Bahía Magdalena, Puerto Adolfo López Mateos and Puerto San Carlos, as two zones with different social and economic profiles, as well as with differences in the spatial distri-bution and threats to the gray whale. In Puerto Adolfo López Mateos, fishing bro-kers asked Pronatura, A.C. to work with them in a proposal to improve their organi-zation and efficiency. The brokers also pro-posed to work with the NGO to obtain funding for education and training about managing tourism and environmental is-sues. Realizing the importance of under-standing and conserving the resource is a first step towards economic development. As has happened in other countries, the lack of understanding of such a connection be-tween natural resources and nature tourism is against local economic benefit (Alam and Naser, 1998; Pinel, 1999). By having in-creased understanding about the resource they use, the communities could achieve ecological sustainability and social and eco-nomic development. According to Bailey (1996), it is likely that locally initiated de-

velopment remain small in scale, placing relatively little stress on local resources and social systems. It has been demonstrated, through the results of this process that an NGO can help in achieving such goals. Based on the results of the workshop, the NGO was capable of providing an informed community-based recommendation to the government authorities. The results demon-strated that an NGO can be influential in managing coastal tourism for the conserva-tion of the environment, and the economic development of fishing communities and the tourism industry. Acknowledgements To the Pronatura team who worked together to conduct a successful workshop: Maryló Mandujano was key in the field work and in preparation of the workshop, Andrea Sáenz prepared and analyzed the scenarios, Ernesto Vázquez M. elaborated the maps, Raven Skydancer helped in all the logistics and provided support throughout the proc-ess. Thanks to all the participant stake-holders. And to the people of the communi-ties of Bahía Magdalena, who realize the responsibility that lies in their hands. To Raven and to Professor Marc Miller for en-couragement to present this paper at the CMT99 Congress. References Alam, M.M. and Naser, M.N. (1998). Pros-

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