La Semana: Sunday, Feb 13
The week in marine conservation, climate change policy and press controversy
¡Buenas tardes!
Welcome to the Sunday edition of The Mexpatriate. In today’s newsletter:
Mexico’s marine biodiversity at risk
Can Guadalajara be a global leader in climate change policy?
AMLO vs Loret: the president’s vendetta sparks condemnation
Please send me your comments, feedback and questions, and feel free to forward this to anyone who may be interested. You can always find all sources (with links) at the bottom of the email.
Mexico’s marine biodiversity at risk
The vaquita marina is the world’s smallest living cetacean, the family which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. If cetaceans had to nominate their cutest representative, the vaquita might be it: at a maximum length of 5 ft, vaquitas (or “little cows”) have a rounded snout and big eyes set in a circular dark patch. This species is endemic to a limited range in the Sea of Cortéz and feeds on crustaceans, squid and fishes in shallow coastal waters. Scientists know little about the longevity of the vaquita marina, but they are estimated to reach reproductive maturity around 6 years, and females birth calves approximately every two years. This makes them vulnerable, slow to recover from their losses to “illegal by-catch.” The questions we have about the vaquitas and their behavior may forever go answered: there are estimated to be only 8-10 of them left.
“Illegal fishing is out of control in Mexican waters, and the vaquita is paying the highest possible price.”
On Feb. 10, the government of the United States announced two significant actions against Mexican illegal fishing. The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office filed its first environmental complaint against Mexico under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade pact, in defense of the vaquita marina. “Illegal fishing is out of control in Mexican waters, and the vaquita is paying the highest possible price. We are glad that the U.S. government is pressuring Mexico for failing to meet its environmental obligations and putting the survival of the vaquita at risk,” stated Sarah Uhlemann, director of the Center for Biological Diversity.
The U.S. also officially closed its ports to Mexican fishing vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, citing repeated incursions into U.S. waters by small fishing vessels using long lines, which are prohibited. In April 2021, the US barred imports of Mexican shrimp because of lack of compliance with the use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TED), which have successfully saved thousands of sea turtles trapped in shrimp trawlers’ nets.
These actions highlight the severity and complexity of Mexico’s illegal fishing problems. The vaquita marina faces extinction in large part because of the relentless pursuit of the totoaba, a species of fish that is also endemic to the upper Gulf of California and has had the misfortune of becoming a prized commodity. The totoaba’s swim bladder is considered an aphrodisiac and treatment for fertility problems in China, making the totoaba the “cocaine of the sea”, and also pushing it to critically endangered status. Fishermen use gillnets to catch totoaba, which are notorious for becoming a “wall of death” if not properly used, entangling everything that comes near. As air-breathing mammals, vaquitas drown quickly if caught in a gillnet.
The lucrative market in totoaba has brought criminal activity with it. Marine biologists have had to go into hiding and Molotov cocktails have been hurled at the Sea Shepherd vessels that patrol the “zero tolerance” zone. In November 2021, 117 fishing vessels were reported there in one sighting. In December 2020, vehicles and boats belonging to the Museo de la Ballena (Museum of the Whale) in San Felipe were set on fire. “It is war between illegal fishing and those of us trying to save the species,” said biologist Diego Ruiz Sabio in an article in El País México.
In December 2021, the environmental watchdog NGO Oceana-Mexico published a report assessing Mexico’s 39 protected marine reserves, which encompass 68.4 million hectares of Mexican waters and 4.1 million hectares of coastal ecosystems. In their research, the team from Oceana made 2500 information requests to authorities involved in managing the Áreas Naturales Protegidas (ANP), interviewed officials and scientific experts and then evaluated compliance. Their overall conclusion: “The current system of ANPs has demonstrated its inefficiency in conserving habitats of critical importance to marine life, such as mangroves and reefs.”
Mexico set a target at a 2010 meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity to convert at least 10% of its oceanic territory into reserves. As of today, 22.3% of this territory is under some form of legal protection. This is an achievement that many other countries that participated in the convention have failed to meet, but as revealed by the Oceana report, the act of environmental protection is simply not enough. All 39 of the reserves were found to be failing on at least one metric, whether lacking a coherent management program, enforcement of environmental laws, or succumbing to over-fishing and pollution. The agency in charge of these vast, fragile ecosystems is CONANP (Comisión Nacional de Areas Protegidas) and it has a budget of $42 million USD for 2022, which amounts to 9.70 pesos per hectare of land and ocean under “protection”, according to CEMDA (Mexican Center for Environmental Law). The Tren Maya budget allotment for 2022 is $3 billion USD.
The budget for environmental agencies has been cut repeatedly since 2014, with some of the steepest declines in the last two years. “It is urgent to increase the federal budget for maintaining and managing the national reserves (ANP),” notes a CEMDA press release.
Even with their flaws, these reserves are still a “front line of defense” explains Enrique Sanjurjo Rivera, an independent environmental consultant who participated in the Oceana study. “We are not saying that protected reserves do not work, we are saying they could work better; we need to have natural reserves that have clear and measurable objectives,” noted Miguel Rivas Soto, director of habitat campaigns at Oceana-Mexico.
On Feb. 9, Mexico’s Supreme Court (SCJN) made a ruling that may offer a beacon of hope. The court ordered the National Agency for the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) to protect, restore and mitigate damage to the reefs around the port of Veracruz after authorizing expansion of the port without a complete environmental impact analysis. “This case sets a precedent that will transform the way that state authorities carry out environmental impact studies across the country. The government and investors will have to learn the lesson that it’s more costly, in every way, to present incomplete projects and not comply with requirements,” stated a CEMDA press release. The case began with an injunction (amparo) from citizens of Veracruz, who accused SEMARNAT of violating their human right to live in a safe environment.
“Conservation has to be done for and by these communities,” observed Rivas Soto. Perhaps this legal victory demonstrates the wisdom of his words.
Can Guadalajara be a global leader in climate change policy?
Mexico’s second most populous city could become a leader in urban environmental policy: Guadalajara has initiated a plan to be carbon neutral by 2050. At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November, 2021, representatives from the city received an award for climate leadership. The two other recipients were Paris, France which has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 25% since 2004, and Samsø, Denmark, an island that is now run entirely on renewable energy.
As of today, the metropolitan area emits 3.3 tons of CO2 per capita per year, mostly from the energy sector (43%), followed by transportation (39%) and waste treatment (18%).
“The achievement of Guadalajara so far is to have a plan,” notes Eugenia Coppel in a Feb. 4 article in Gatopardo. This award-winning plan was approved in 2020 and is known as the Plan de Acción Climática del Área Metropolitana or PACMetro. It is unprecedented in scale, not just in Mexico but in Latin America—it isn’t limited to the city proper, it includes the eight other municipalities that make up the urban area. Guadalajara joined the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2018, which is formed by mayors from 97 cities around the world who have committed to halve emissions in member cities within a decade. The PACmetro was developed as part of the municipality’s commitment to the C40. “The award highlights the need for regional climate action plans, recognizing that there has to be collective effort,” according to Mario Silva Rodríguez, the director of the Metropolitan Planning Institute (Imeplan) of Guadalajara.
According to research included in the report, if the city makes no effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, they will triple in the next 30 years. As of today, the metropolitan area emits 3.3 tons of CO2 per capita per year, mostly from the energy sector (43%), followed by transportation (39%) and waste treatment (18%). The city has suffered poor air quality, waterways contaminated with heavy metals and has lost thousands of hectares of trees to development. The PACmetro sets targets in these three broad categories to bring net emissions to zero by 2050. So far, the city has increased the number of bike paths by 140% in the last three years, has closed the state’s largest garbage dump and started operating 38 electric buses as part of its public transportation overhaul. On Jan. 30, the 40-kilometer rapid transit bus system, Mi Macro Periférico, was inaugurated and provided transportation to over a million users in its first week of operation.
“Local governments will not keep waiting on the authorization, permission, or the will of national governments, we are ready to do our part because here, in the economies of the world’s biggest cities, we find the biggest climactic problems,” declared the governor of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro in a 2020 statement. The attention and political capital accumulated by Guadalajara following the COP26 summit have led to international financial opportunities. The United Kingdom’s Urban Climate Action Program (UCAP) will help to fund some of the projects outlined in PACmetro and the European Union is also dedicating 2.1 million euros towards “urban resilience” and waste management programs, as well as providing technical support from the municipality of Barcelona.
It is hard to imagine two places on Earth more dissimilar than Guadalajara and Samsø: one a growing city of 5.2 million, the other a 144 square km island inhabited by 3,324 people where the addition of 90 new residents in 2021 was viewed as a pleasant surprise. Most citizens of Guadalajara work in commerce, tourism, industry, while Samsø residents have traditionally been farmers. And yet, both are confronting 21st century challenges with an eye towards innovation, by inspiring “local leaders, stakeholders, governments and policy makers [to act] locally to address climate change in a way that improves the perspectives and chances for sustainable living of their people and their communities.”
AMLO vs Loret: the president’s vendetta sparks condemnation
“AMLO exposes confidential data about a citizen, who is not a public servant…this is abuse of power.”
Denise Dresser
“Today we have crossed a very dangerous line when the president exhibits in an illegal manner the supposed income of journalist Carlos Loret de Mola.”
Azucena Uresti
“In the 42 days of this year, six journalists from local news outlets have been murdered and the President continues to attack journalism. What he did today…is not only an attack on freedom of expression, it is an attack against society as a whole.”
Nayeli Roldán
“I express my deepest solidarity with journalists who risk their lives to investigate and expose the truth, even without protection. And no one protects them from this arbitrary head of state.”
Linda Cruz
These are just a few of the expressions of outrage and of professional solidarity from journalists and columnists after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Feb. 11 morning press conference, in which he displayed the purported salary of journalist Carlos Loret de Mola and insinuated that SAT (Department of Tax Administration) should investigate him.
AMLO has been trying to do damage control after Loret’s investigative reporting on his son—which revealed his mansion in Houston and the $70,000 Mercedes he drives—led to a firestorm of accusations of hypocrisy and conflicts of interest.
“The president is cornered,” according to Loret. “He doesn’t know how to get rid of the scandal of his son’s house.”
Sources
1.
Entran en vigor sanciones de EU a embarcaciones mexicanas (Oceana México)
US files first USMCA environment case on Mexico over porpoise (AP News)
Cómo la pesca ilegal de la “cocaína del mar” en México amenaza la existencia de la vaquita marina (BBC News)
La estocada final a la vaquita marina (El País México)
México: ¿áreas marinas solo protegidas en el papel? (Animal Político)
Corte ordena proteger arrecifes y restaurar daños por obras en Veracruz (Animal Político)
Mexico must act quickly on illegal fishing, following new sanctions from the United States (Oceana)
2.
Guadalajara gana “palomita verde” de la ONU (El Financiero)
Peribus. Mi Macro Periférico ya tiene fecha de inauguración en Jalisco (Milenio)
PACmetro: ¿qué camino tomará el plan climático de Guadalajara? (Gatopardo)
Publican PACmetro: entra en vigor el plan para reducir emisiones (Informador)
3.