Cesando la Sal: A Social Ecology of Conservation-as-Development and Pacific Gray Whale Ecotourism in El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, México

Abstract

This project examines the decision of an ejido (communal land where members have development and land use rights, but not ownership) in the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve (EVBR) to sell their development rights to a Mexican conservation group, and the complex socioecological and economic consequences that have since unfolded. Located in the state of Baja California Sur (BCS) in Mexico on the coast of a critical Pacific gray whale breeding ground called Laguna San Ignacio, Ejido Luis Echeverría Álvarez (ELEA) has faced multiple attempts by Mitsubishi to purchase their land development rights to expand their massive sea salt production facilities in BCS. Despite pressure from such a wealthy, powerful multinational company, in 2005 ELEA became the first ejido in the EVBR to sell their usufruct rights instead to a cohort of conservation groups who maintain the land and associated lagoon as a Pacific gray whale conservation area while also providing economic development funds and ecotourism opportunities to the local community. This attempt at conservation through development added to the complex interplay between whaling protections and the fishing industry that historically served as ELEA’s central economic industry. In the aftermath of this partial economic transition, my research will focus on the tensions between whale conservation and the fishing industry of ELEA, the social ecology and conservation advocacy of the surrounding area, and the rise of the whale-watching ecotourism industry in BCS. Through ethnographic research in ELEA, I seek to understand the socioecological and economic impact of this conservation development deal on the multi-species community of ELEA while problematizing the conservation sector’s promotion of green capitalism.