Blue Carbon Farming in Baja

January 6, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Laguna San Ignacio, BCS, Mexico. Member of El Datil coop and red mangrove seeds.

The southern reaches of Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California Sur, Mexico, may be the easiest places on the peninsula to get lost or hopelessly stuck.

Located west of the jutting escarpments, layered peaks, and hidden canyons of the Sierra de Guadalupe are “treacherous sand dunes, salt flats, and mud of a no-man’s land.” Surfers have been passing over these mud, sand, and dusty tracks southward to San Juanico or Scorpion Bay for decades.

“Take the wrong turn and you end up on a 20-mile detour that leads to a salt flat crossing filled with water and mud so thick that even walking is difficult,” I wrote in Saving the Gray Whale back in 2000. In the early 1990s, my wife Emily and I spent a few months living there while carrying out research on gray whale conservation. We got stuck and lost in our 1987 Ford F150 in the Lagoon’s southern salt flats plenty of times.

Today, the gray whale lagoon is part of the 6.2 million-acre federally protected El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The remote lagoon is inhabited by salty fishermen and their families, many of whom make their living running whale watching camps during the winter months.

Tourists watch whales as they swim by .Every year gray whales visit Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California Sur, Mexico, to give birth and mate.

This isolated and wild region is also ground zero for an ambitious and innovative effort to help sequester carbon via mangroves, the aquatic plants that line the wetlands and embayments of the central and southern Baja California peninsula and are found among the tropics.

“The mangroves of Baja are unusual because they are desert mangroves and found in only a handful of regions around the world,” says Tannia Frausto, WILDCOAST Climate Change Manager.

Celeste Ortega of WILDCOAST in the mangroves.

Mangroves are a type of blue carbon ecosystem that sequester atmospheric carbon at a rate five times faster than terrestrial forests while storing up to 50 times more carbon than forests on land. They’re of special interest today as we work to reverse the impacts of the past 100 years of releasing excess carbon into the atmosphere. Our coastal ecosystems are incredibly efficient at removing harmful amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and can store it for thousands of years, making these areas key in the fight against climate change.

“If we are to address climate change, it is imperative that we not only reduce emissions globally. We also have to conserve and restore the natural ecosystems that help us sequester carbon and adapt to climate change. In the case of mangroves, these ecosystems protect shorelines against rising seas levels and dangerous chubasco storm surges as well as sequester carbon,” says Frausto.

With the support of SeaTrees, WILDCOAST is working with women in Laguna San Ignacio to plant 40,000 mangroves over 25 acres of tidal zones, creating a habitat suitable for fish, shellfish, wildlife, and adapting to and mitigating climate change. “Mujeres de El Dátil” are trained in mangrove environmental services, seedlings collection, and planting techniques, as well as monitoring and maintenance of restored sites.

“Our collective efforts in the Lagoon provide a clear model for how we can work at the local and global level to address climate change through natural solutions,” says Frausto

It’s all part of a larger project to protect mangrove forests throughout Mexico. Through legal protection and management, WILDCOAST has helped to conserve 38,336 acres of mangrove forests that store 3.5 million tons of carbon, equivalent to the emissions of 2.8 million cars driven in one year. As Frausto points out, it’s a natural solution to tackling climate change — a piece of the puzzle we can all put together now before it’s too late.

 Learn more about WILDCOAST and their plans to expand into other tropical regions. This article orginally appeared in The Inertia.

Filed Under: Baja California, blue carbon, climate change, coastal protection, Gray whales, Mexico, natural climate solutions, ocean conservation, San Ignacio Lagoon, Uncategorized, WiLDCOAST Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

HOW WILDCOAST WORKS WITH COMMUNITIES

October 11, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Carrying out conservation programs is challenging at all levels. It requires partnerships and collaboration with government agencies and officials, the private sector and the people in communities who are in and around the ecosystems, wildlife and protected areas that WILDCOAST strives to conserve. 

Scallop divers, Magdalena Baj, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Photo: Miguel Angel de la Cueva

Probably the most important part of the conservation coalitions that advocate for the protection of coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife are the diverse community members and organizations in coastal communities. 

Working them is essential and rewarding to protecting our coast and ocean. But it is not an end inself. That is because WILDCOAST is not a community development organization. Our mission is to carry out coastal and marine conservation and address climate change through natural solutions. 

We work with communities and local organizations because it is the right thing to do and it is the most effective way to advance conservation. There is no nature protection without community engagement, because people are part of nature everywhere WILDCOAST works. 

Here are some ways that WILDCOAST is working at a community level for nature protection and especially addressing climate change. 

Stewardship

One of the most important elements of conservation for WILDCOAST is the actual on site protection and management or stewardship of the protected areas we work in. To be effective, stewardship requires active local volunteers and organizations to help defend ecosystems and protected areas. 

In La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, Las Guardianas del Conchalito is a group of women who work with WILDCOAST, as well as Mexico’s Protected Area Commission (CONANP), to manage a mangrove reserve called  ”El Conchalito.” 

According to WILDCOAST’s Mangrove Conservation Manager Celeste Ortega, “These local conservationists have helped to install reserve information signs for visitors; painted murals with local artists and carried out really extensive cleanup campaigns.” 

More recently the Guardianas worked with law enforcement authorities to stop the destruction of mangroves by a poacher. The women of Conchalito illustrate the power of local stewardship to protect carbon sequestering mangroves, which combat the effects of climate change and help safeguard their community. 

Education

Working with local communities and especially students on education campaigns is critical in the defense of threatened ecosystems and wildlife. In the case of marine protected areas in California, WILDCOAST, carried out extensive in-field and classroom education programs about marine protected areas to reach the community at large as well as thousands of students. During the pandemic this helped to reduce the people illegally harvesting sea life from fragile tide pools in and around marine protected areas in California. 

One of the ways that WILDCOAST has gone deeper into the education side of things is to recognize the need for additional leadership to help advocate for our coastal areas. That is why we developed the Coastal Leaders Internship program.

 “I am thrilled for the opportunity to continue to work with our local Indigenous students and communities as well as to work for an organization that acknowledges Indigenous land and stewardship practices,” said WILDCOAST’s Jules Jackson. “The Coastal Leaders Internship is an innovative leadership program that provides a teaching platform for both Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and modern-day environmental conservation, thus enabling students the unique platform to develop their scientific understanding in a way which aligns with their culture and values while providing a pathway for future employment. 

Likewise, wildlife protection is impossible to carry out in rural and remote areas like southern Oaxaca without the involvement and education of local residents, especially in the indigenous coastal communities that help to protect nesting sea turtles. 

“The Oaxacan coast is home to two of the most important beaches in the world for olive ridley nesting,” says Luis Angel Rojas Cruz of WILDCOAST. “We have  educated more than 1,000 children and young people from coastal communities of Chontal and Zapotec origin on the issue of sea turtle conservation including developing outreach material in their native languages. 

As a result, we have noticed that community participation in the conservation of sea turtles has generated a change of consciousness in part of its inhabitants, especially in children and young people.” 

Restoration and Research Partnership for Natural Climate Solutions 

Carrying out natural climate solutions programs to restore coastal wetlands in California and mangrove lagoons in Mexico, requires extensive partnerships and participation through local conservation groups, students as well as academic partnerships with research institutions such as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Queensland in Australia. 

To carry out a mangrove restoration project in Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, Mexico, “WILDCOAST partnered with local residents, especially youth and women’s groups in this remote UNESCO World Heritage Site and protected area,” said Francisco Martinez of WILDCOAST. “The mangrove project provides employment and training opportunities for local residents and helps create a natural defense system against coastal flooding in a region that is routinely hit by hurricanes.”

In California, WILDCOAST, is partnering with local conservation organizations such as the Batiquitos Lagoon Conservancy to restore wetland and riparian habitat in a state marine protected area, and involve local youth in restoration efforts as well. That way there is local buy-in for the project and local investment in supporting its success.

Volunteers at the Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad, CA help plant 100 trees as part of a commitment with San Diego Gas and Electric to plant 10,000 trees in 2021.

Right: Youth groups help remove scattered and submerged trash during an annual Batiquitos Lagoon Cleanup. Left: Students help clear invasives + Arundo plant, making room for local plants to thrive and enhancing the lagoon’s overall ecosystem function. Together, we are helping strengthen the lagoon’s ecosystem services such as recreation, carbon storage, and critical wildlife habitat. 

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To be successful in conservation, local ecosystems and wildlife need all the friends they can get. And that means that for every conservation action taken, a robust coalition of community members and organizations is involved every step of the way. That is because conservation must be a team effort all the way. That is why WILDCOAST will continue its deep partnerships and collaborative work with local communities and vibrant organizations in order to give our coast and ocean as well as our planet a helping hand.

Filed Under: blue carbon, California, climate change, coastal protection, Mexico, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Coastal Conservation in Barra de la Cruz, Oaxaca

September 17, 2021 by Leave a Comment

(Originally published by the World Surf League) From the lineup at Barra de la Cruz, located in Oaxaca, Mexico, the next stop on the World Surf League’s professional surf tour (August 10-20), you would be forgiven for thinking you are in Hawaii. After the rainy season starts, the mountains shimmer endlessly under the green wave of tropical forest.

Barra de la Cruz. Photo: Miguel Angel de la Cueva

The pristine beaches that extend for miles southeastward from the point at “Barra,” like much of this part of Oaxaca’s coastline, include some of the world’s most important nesting sites for sea turtles, including the globally endangered leatherback, ancient behemoths that only come ashore to lay their eggs and travels thousands of miles of ocean to arrive there.

Barra is the most important leatherback nesting beach in Mexico, a species that faces extinction due to industrial and commercial fishing gear entanglements, poaching, coastal development, and other threats.WILDCOAST GranteeDuring the nesting season, 100,000 olive ridley sea turtles can arrive at Playa Morro Ayuta in Oaxaca to lay their eggs in a single day. – CLAUDIO CONTRERAS KOOB

“There are few places in the world that are home to such unique wildlife and pristine coastline as Oaxaca. Barra de la Cruz is no exception,” explains Luis Angel Rojas Cruz, WILDCOAST’s Oaxaca Program Manager. WILDCOAST is working with communities and Mexico’s National Protected Area Commission along this coastline to protect its nesting beaches, mangroves, and coral reefs.

“It is really extraordinary to witness the miracle of Oaxaca’s protected and gorgeous coastline,” adds Rojas Cruz. “The fact that this globally important coastal zone is still relatively pristine is due to the conservation focus and commitment of the coastal indigenous communities of Oaxaca. The indigenous residents of Barra de la Cruz deserve global recognition for their heroic and successful initiatives to protect the world-class wildlife and ecosystems within their community.”WILDCOAST GranteeBirds of a feather taking advantage of their natural feeding grounds. – CLAUDIO CONTRERAS KOOB

Over the past 15 years Barra de la Cruz has become a model for how communities can proactively protect natural resources they depend on for their livelihoods. “The combination of the importance of our beaches for surfing, leatherback sea turtles, and as a hot spot for migratory and resident birds is what makes Barra so special,” says Pablo Narvaez, a Barra resident, eco-guide, and environmental activist.

“In the case of Barra,” according to Zach Plopper, Associate Director of WILDCOAST, “we have a great example of a proactive community that recognizes the importance of protecting their most important and vulnerable ecosystems and wildlife as well as a world-class wave.”https://www.worldsurfleague.com/socialembed?embedId=HNt2D6g_yFI&embedType=youtube

“By not developing the coastal zone and using surfing to provide collective economic benefits for the locals, the community of Barra has set a sustainable example of effective ecosystem conservation,” continues Plopper.

In Barra de la Cruz the community decided to prohibit coastal development, with the exception of a collectively managed restaurant.

“What also makes Barra so unique is that we can promote ecotourism activities that benefit local residents, without ruining the natural resources that make Barra de la Cruz such a world-class surf spot and wildlife habitat,” adds Narvaez.WILD COASTThe coral reefs of nearby Huatulco National Park are among the most well preserved in southern Mexico. – CLAUDIO CONTRERAS KOOB

“What now also makes conservation efforts like these so globally important is that the tropical forest and wetland and mangrove ecosystems that are being conserved along the Oaxacan coast, and especially in Barra de la Cruz, sequester carbon and helps in the fight against climate change,” echoes Rojas Cruz.

Down the coast in Playa Morro Ayuta, a globally important olive ridley sea turtle nesting beach and world-class surf spot, indigenous Chontal community leaders have also committed to protecting their 16-kilometer-long coastline, as well as safeguarding nesting sea turtles and the hatchlings that emerge by the millions. In contrast, further south in Punta Conejo, a major development proposal by the government has once again threatened a surf spot and an important coastal ecosystem.The watersheds and tropical forests in the mountains above Barra de la Cruz and Huatulco, Oaxaca help to store water and atmospheric carbon and are critical in the fight against climate change. Photo: MIguel Angel de la CuevaThe watersheds and tropical forests in the mountains above Barra de la Cruz and Huatulco, Oaxaca help to store water and atmospheric carbon and are critical in the fight against climate change. – MIGUEL ANGEL DE LA CUEVA

Places like Barra, that are trying to protect their resources including waves, and benefit the local economy, “just need some help with a sustainability model that can benefit everyone in the community and continue to respect the natural environment. That’s really our challenge,” says Narvaez.

In the case of Oaxaca and Barra de la Cruz, these extraordinarily successful locally driven coastal conservation initiatives provide a hopeful template for how we can protect world-class waves and wildlife while saving the planet.

Filed Under: Mexico, Surfing, WiLDCOAST Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,