The National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Conanp) warned of environmental damage, but the project was approved anyway.
In just a few years, Cabo Pulmo became an example of conservation worldwide but is now in serious danger due to a tourism project, which received the approval of Semarnat.
The La Abundancia project received authorization for 35 years and occupies an area of 68.6 hectares; the MIA was approved in the last days of the last federal administration.
Without holding a public information meeting or public consultation, the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) authorized a tourist and residential project on the borders of the Cabo Pulmo National Park, even though the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Conanp) said at the time that it was not compatible due to the possible effects on the National Park located in Baja California Sur.
This is the La Abundancia project, with code 03BS2024TD041, which received a 35-year permit and occupies an area of 68.6 hectares, with a hotel, residential homes, a beach club, roads, services, and a commercial area.
According to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), to supply water to the complex, a desalination plant is planned and the already overexploited Cabo Pulmo aquifer is used, which is not even enough to supply the community that, in the 1990s, decided to stop fishing and dedicate itself to ecotourism.
Thanks to this fundamental change, Cabo Pulmo became an example of conservation worldwide in just a few years, as it managed to exponentially increase the presence of marine species and protect the only coral reef in the Gulf of California.
In this case, the La Abundancia project, which inexplicably received the approval of the state government headed by Víctor Castro, touches just over 500 meters of beach in Cabo Pulmo, the jewel in the crown of Baja California Sur.
Greenpeace Mexico and the Cabo Pulmo Vivo Coalition revealed that La Abundancia, promoted by Gre El Rincón S de RL de CV, received approval on September 12, but it was not until October 10 that it was published in the Official Gazette of Semarnat.
Aleira Lara, director of campaigns for Greenpeace Mexico, expressed her deep concern about the approval of the tourist complex in Cabo Pulmo and urged the new head of Semarnat, Alicia Bárcena, to reconsider this decision that puts a vitally important ecosystem at risk.
“We call on Alicia Bárcena to make up for this environmental error by approving the tourist complex in Cabo Pulmo and not continuing the destruction of vulnerable ecosystems, as occurred in the previous administration,” he said.
According to the analysis of the documentation, it was in the last days of the previous federal administration when Raúl Rodríguez Quintana, in charge of the Semarnat Representation Office in Baja California Sur, approved the MIA, by accepting the process as a Particular MIA instead of a Regional MIA, which due to its magnitude and importance had to be processed in the central offices by the General Directorate of Risk and Environmental Impact (Dgira).
Source: Excelsior
