By Camilo Thompson | Attorney, Marine and Coastal Protection
Earlier this year, as part of AIDA’s role in the Cabo Pulmo Vivo Coalition, we participated in the process of appointing the new coordinator of the Coalition. We helped with the revision of applications and provided assistance in the selection of the final candidate, who joined the Coalition in April brining a strong background in biological sciences.
The Coalition is dedicated to protect the Cabo Pulmo Reef National Park, a 20,000-year-old ecological treasure in Baja California Sur, Mexico, that hosts many of the 800 marine species in the Sea of Cortez. Developers repeatedly try to build enormous tourist resorts at Cabo Pulmo and the coral reefs there are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of these poorly planned development. AIDA has been instrumental in defeating these projects, and continues to work alongside local partners to protect this critical marine area.
During April and May we played an active role in the integration process of the new coordinator, working in collaboration with him to review and update the Coalition’s guidelines and present the work and activities that AIDA has been doing to strengthen the Coalition.
Due to the current pandemic most of the work has been transferred to virtual platforms. In order to continue the ongoing activities and strategy, we’ve had our coordination meetings online instead of in person, ensuring not only the safety of all participants but also the ability to continue the work and, from the AIDA team, being able to provide the much needed legal and scientific assistance to the local communities and partners.
One of the key pieces of the work that is being coordinated during these meetings is the follow up of a letter and report on the current situation in Cabo Pulmo National Park that was sent in January to the UNESCO, RAMSAR and IUCN authorities. At the end of April, we received the response from the Ramsar Convention's Councilor for the Americas who stated that the Mexican authorities had been informed of the documents submitted by the Coalition.
AIDA is coordinating the follow up meetings and we requested a hearing with the Ramsar Convention's focal point in Mexico, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), to continue the request of revision of the documents.
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