Ashley M. Moore
The Gulf of California is home to more than 900 Islands, 530 species of birds, 34 species of marine mammals, 900 species of tropical fish, and 749 species of invertebrates (World Wildlife Foundation, 2007). In addition the gulf has 60 marine ports: 15 for commercial use , 20 fishing ports, 17 tourist’s ports, and 8 petroleum and industrial ports (NOAA, 2006). Activity from the 60 ports is a great threat to the biodiversity that exists in the Gulf of California. One can only imagine the impact of overfishing conducted by large and small scale fisheries, pollution from trash and sewage, and the ecological foot print left by visiting tourist, etc. Throughout the field trip, we made it a priority to gain first hand knowledge of fishing and industrial ports, aqua and agriculture plants, and small and large scale fisheries through observation. The accumulation of knowledge through hands on activities and observation is a very important step to take for anyone focusing in marine conservation.
The class took a two day field trip to San Carlos,
Miramar and Guaymas to speak to two associates from World Wild Life Foundation, Alejandro Rodriguez and Diana Crespo. We also stopped at the head quarters of CONANP to speak to Ana Luisa Figueroa. WWF and CONANP are non profit organizations and government agencies that focus to limit stress factors by conservation projects; something I will explain in detail later. We had the opportunities to interview the people involve and listen to projects that are currently occurring in the region
WWF is an interesting organization. I view them as “organizers,” They research certain conservation issues by hiring outside biologist, draw attention to the issue and bring other organizations and NGO’s together. This can be very positive for bringing excellent organizations together and sharing opinions and ideas to get the job done. It is a very interesting concept. I like to refer to this as the funnel effect; brings organizations together pinpointing a specific conservation project. They also fund a large amount of the projects; their annual budget is approximately one
million dollars a year. The receive funding through other WWF organization, primarily from the United States and by Packard.
However, bringing several governmental agencies and NGO’s can have conflicting ideas. WWF tends to focus on large and “sexy” conservation projects involving many important NGO’s and governmental agencies such as, GESI, CONAMP, Conservation International, etc. In turn, there is neither time nor money allocated for small scale community based issues. WWF is also known to protect beautiful animals compared to not so beautiful animals, hence their logo. The same thing could be said about land in the Gulf of California.
They have invested so much time, money and energy into beautiful islands such as San Pedro Martir to get additional protection and it was very successful; it is now a biosphere reserves. Meanwhile, seventy percent of the coastline from Kino Bay to Tastiota is being consumed by aquaculture plants and estuaries are disappearing rapidly every year. I am forever grateful for WWF work and their incredible achievements and also for having the time in their busy schedule to talk to the class. I also believe they take away conservation opportunities on the community based level.
The class had the beautiful
experience to meet with Ana Luisa Figueroa has been the director of islas in Sonora and has been for the past 13 years. She is originally from Mexico City where she received her bachelors specializing in marine mammals. She then received her masters degree in Santa Cruz, California specializing in endemic mammals. She spoke about the history of the Natural Reserve system and the difficulties the organization went through. She stressed that up until the 1990’s, all of the islands were protected but no actions were taking place to actually protect them. They were simply stated protected on paper. Later in 
the 90’s, CONANP received a 16 million U.S dollars from GEF funds which is part of the World Bank, to use for conservation purposes regarding the islands. She commented on the difficulties the company and her self went through because the government would control the money and there were several steps they had to go through in order to receive it. Many times, employees would spend money from their personal pockets and then reimbursed months later. In turn it was hard to keep employees around. In 1997, Figueroa started a nation wide trust fund where they were able to put the rest of the 16 million dollars and only use the interest gained. This enabled them to access the money without going through the government.
SAGARPA, PROFEPA, NAVY, PGR, CONANP,
Talking with her, it seems as if CONANP is evolving and focusing on long term monitoring. She explained a NGO can perform a number of successful projects but one has to monitor such projects for years afterwards to ensure it was successful. Figueroa and her team are developing a manual for the current laws of the region. Many agencies have agreed to get involved such as, SAGARPA, PROFEPA, NAVY, PGR, CONANP and regulate along with enforce the laws. In order to achieve this, they would like to invest more money for better enforcement. This would include guns, fast reliable boats, updated equipment and technology. As of right now the only way they can enforce laws is through education and the navy. I was extremely impressed with Figueroa and her work. I am extremely excited that the company is starting to focus on enforcement, it is needed desperately.
The Gulf of California is home to more than 900 Islands, 530 species of birds, 34 species of marine mammals, 900 species of tropical fish, and 749 species of invertebrates (World Wildlife Foundation, 2007). In addition the gulf has 60 marine ports: 15 for commercial use , 20 fishing ports, 17 tourist’s ports, and 8 petroleum and industrial ports (NOAA, 2006). Activity from the 60 ports is a great threat to the biodiversity that exists in the Gulf of California. One can only imagine the impact of overfishing conducted by large and small scale fisheries, pollution from trash and sewage, and the ecological foot print left by visiting tourist, etc. Throughout the field trip, we made it a priority to gain first hand knowledge of fishing and industrial ports, aqua and agriculture plants, and small and large scale fisheries through observation. The accumulation of knowledge through hands on activities and observation is a very important step to take for anyone focusing in marine conservation.
The class took a two day field trip to San Carlos,
Miramar and Guaymas to speak to two associates from World Wild Life Foundation, Alejandro Rodriguez and Diana Crespo. We also stopped at the head quarters of CONANP to speak to Ana Luisa Figueroa. WWF and CONANP are non profit organizations and government agencies that focus to limit stress factors by conservation projects; something I will explain in detail later. We had the opportunities to interview the people involve and listen to projects that are currently occurring in the regionWWF is an interesting organization. I view them as “organizers,” They research certain conservation issues by hiring outside biologist, draw attention to the issue and bring other organizations and NGO’s together. This can be very positive for bringing excellent organizations together and sharing opinions and ideas to get the job done. It is a very interesting concept. I like to refer to this as the funnel effect; brings organizations together pinpointing a specific conservation project. They also fund a large amount of the projects; their annual budget is approximately one
million dollars a year. The receive funding through other WWF organization, primarily from the United States and by Packard.However, bringing several governmental agencies and NGO’s can have conflicting ideas. WWF tends to focus on large and “sexy” conservation projects involving many important NGO’s and governmental agencies such as, GESI, CONAMP, Conservation International, etc. In turn, there is neither time nor money allocated for small scale community based issues. WWF is also known to protect beautiful animals compared to not so beautiful animals, hence their logo. The same thing could be said about land in the Gulf of California.
They have invested so much time, money and energy into beautiful islands such as San Pedro Martir to get additional protection and it was very successful; it is now a biosphere reserves. Meanwhile, seventy percent of the coastline from Kino Bay to Tastiota is being consumed by aquaculture plants and estuaries are disappearing rapidly every year. I am forever grateful for WWF work and their incredible achievements and also for having the time in their busy schedule to talk to the class. I also believe they take away conservation opportunities on the community based level.The class had the beautiful
experience to meet with Ana Luisa Figueroa has been the director of islas in Sonora and has been for the past 13 years. She is originally from Mexico City where she received her bachelors specializing in marine mammals. She then received her masters degree in Santa Cruz, California specializing in endemic mammals. She spoke about the history of the Natural Reserve system and the difficulties the organization went through. She stressed that up until the 1990’s, all of the islands were protected but no actions were taking place to actually protect them. They were simply stated protected on paper. Later in 
the 90’s, CONANP received a 16 million U.S dollars from GEF funds which is part of the World Bank, to use for conservation purposes regarding the islands. She commented on the difficulties the company and her self went through because the government would control the money and there were several steps they had to go through in order to receive it. Many times, employees would spend money from their personal pockets and then reimbursed months later. In turn it was hard to keep employees around. In 1997, Figueroa started a nation wide trust fund where they were able to put the rest of the 16 million dollars and only use the interest gained. This enabled them to access the money without going through the government.SAGARPA, PROFEPA, NAVY, PGR, CONANP,
Talking with her, it seems as if CONANP is evolving and focusing on long term monitoring. She explained a NGO can perform a number of successful projects but one has to monitor such projects for years afterwards to ensure it was successful. Figueroa and her team are developing a manual for the current laws of the region. Many agencies have agreed to get involved such as, SAGARPA, PROFEPA, NAVY, PGR, CONANP and regulate along with enforce the laws. In order to achieve this, they would like to invest more money for better enforcement. This would include guns, fast reliable boats, updated equipment and technology. As of right now the only way they can enforce laws is through education and the navy. I was extremely impressed with Figueroa and her work. I am extremely excited that the company is starting to focus on enforcement, it is needed desperately.
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