BajaNews - 2-4-2006 at 04:49 PM
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/vi_16863.html
BY TALLI NAUMAN
04 de febrero de 2006
Environmental organizations were among those making the Sixth World Social Forum happen this past week in Caracas. While some Mexican groups attended,
a gathering of others in the state of Baja California Sur brought home the verity that people can achieve global change for the better with grassroots
organizing.
The World Social Forum is organized civil society?s rallying point for the development of options to the failing dominant models of globalization in
trade and other spheres, as promoted by the World Economic Forum. Similarly, albeit on a more issue-specific level, the gathering in BCS of Grupo
Tortuguero adherents is a focal point of an effort to build a network strong enough to protect all the sea turtles on the planet.
The annual meeting that took place Jan. 27 to 29 of the Grupo Tortuguero in Loreto drew some 300 registrants of coastal communities from the Eastern
Pacific and Mexico?s five Gulf of California states. That made it among the largest of their eight meetings since Wallace "Jay" Nichols envisioned the
concept as many years ago. Besides local sea turtle advocate groups, it drew officials from different branches of the federal Environment and Natural
Resources Secretariat, representatives of large international non-governmental organizations, marine scientists and other technical experts, as well
as many of the more than 50 donors who sponsored the work.
Its success could be measured not only in the numbers and breadth of participating institutions, but also in achievements inspired by the mutual
support system of membership in Grupo Tortugueros. From its inception to the present, the umbrella organization has compiled data from seven
communities.
At a minimum this data supports the group?s thesis that humans do not know enough about sea turtles to understand their role in the balance of nature.
But, even better, the data is showing trends in turtle populations, which have never been seen before and would still be unavailable were it not for
community monitoring.
The monitoring of nests, coastal waters and fishing boats couples with environmental education and the creation of official marine protected areas.
Beach hotel managers and other tourism enterprises lend financial support, collaborate in preventing development in nesting areas or avoiding delays
in hatchling releases carried out for tourist observation purposes. Fishermen declare certain areas off limits to trawling in order to reduce fatal
by-catch of the turtles.
Through these efforts, volunteers have detected that the Olive Ridley turtle population is growing, while other species of turtles are maintaining
steady reproduction and still others are waning in numbers to dangerously low levels.
While awareness still remains to be improved in places where people are accustomed to catching and eating turtles, as well as selling their shell and
body parts, some fishing families are becoming involved in alternative economic activities that preserve the native wildlife, such as ecotourism based
on turtle watching.
This type of small-scale economic reconversion is especially crucial since enforcement of protective measures is inadequate. A ban on turtle killing
has been in place for decades in Mexico due to the dismal fact that all the species are in danger of extinction, yet poaching is rampant on the Baja
peninsula?s coasts.
Some kinds of sea turtles are so extremely endangered that each day is critical in assuring the survival of the species. Public participation in
conservation efforts is what will ultimately make the difference in saving the sea turtles. Plans handed down from on high will not do the trick. They
must be built from sea level up.
That, of course, takes money. At this year?s Grupo Tortuguero conference, the Mexican banking philanthropy Fomento Ecol?gico Banamex received a
recognition award for channeling US$1.3 million to the cause. Other benefactors too numerous to mention also deserve recognition. They are in the
private and public sector of Mexico and the United States.
A message of thanks should go out to them with a post script urging others to join in and keep up the good work.