Save Eco Destinations

I just came across this post on the Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree. It starts with some quotes from an online article discussing the Tulum situation, and continues with the commentaries on each quote:

“Hotel owners argue they’ve been there for up to two decades without problems, and their businesses are built around protecting the environment.”
Hotel owners have had a free ride for 20 years and are now paying the price-they knew this was coming-have known for years in fact.”Roberto Palazuelos, a Mexican soap opera actor and president of the Tulum Hotel Owners Association, says the federal government’s paperwork to create the protected area in the 1980s was never done correctly. His Hotel Diamante K is among the five that have been closed.”
That’s what his lawyer is telling him-and will keep telling him as long as he’s being paid.“I think they want to take away the land and divide it between themselves,” he said.
If only life were so simple.

Okay, so whoever wrote this (hardnosethehighway) has absolutely no clue (with all due respect) about the property situation in Tulum. Aside from the fact that most lots on the Tulum beach have at least two or more owners (yes, with title and all), there’s the ejido situation (in the South part of the hotel zone, where the government both gave the land to indigenous groups (ejido) and also sold the same land as private property), there’s this current problem in the Northern part of the hotel zone, near the archaeological site: the government both issued land titles and declared the same property as a national park.

So the question is: who’s right here? Well, it’s both a national park and private property, so technically both sides are right. It’s up to the Mexican judicial system to figure out what to do here, and the hotels are obviously appealing the foreclosure. So saying the hotels have had a “free ride” for years is quite inaccurate. The hotel owners (Roberto Palazuelos included) purchased property with a title. These same property owners have been paying property tax and federal zone taxes (for use of the beach) for years. They’re hardly squatters.

Should they have done a little more research before purchasing? Maybe, but there are few areas in Mexico that have the complex land issues that Tulum and the surrounding area have. Tulum is located within Quintana Roo, Mexico’s youngest state. And it’s not always easy to determine the entire situation of each property: with multiple titles and the government doing whatever it feels like (ejido/park/titles), sometimes the status of land is totally unclear.

If the land is actually used as a national park and is duly protected by the government, a decision to favor the park might be in the best interest for the area, ecologically speaking. But many in the area fear that it’s just an excuse by the government to take over the land, and then re-sell it yet again to a major developer. Which, of course, would be an eco disaster and would change forever the peaceful eco paradise that Tulum has been until now.

Holbox Island, on the Gulf part of the Yucatan Peninsula, has developed fast to accommodate the demands of tourism, which negatively affects both social and eco systems. Urban plans for organized future development have not been made, however the Yalahau Lagoon, that separates the island from the coast and houses thirty species of Peracarida crustaceans, was established as a biosphere reserve several years ago. Holbox Island is also home to horseshoe crabs, an arthropod related to spiders and ticks, whose skeletons can be seen washed up on shore.

Holbox is also home to whale shark sightings offshore, and is a popular place to take tours to swim with the sharks, which are considered a threatened species.

This little island just offshore the Yucatan seems to be doing an okay job of preserving its smallness. Let’s hope the government actually makes an effort at promoting healthy growth. The good thing is that real estate hasn’t gone crazy on the island, and most land is available only as tiny lots for boutique hotels.  So far, no concrete AIs.

By Rossy Lopez. Despite the destruction of dunes and mangrove by Texas’s Camerun Bood, for the construction of the so-called Sian Ka’an Ecological Center (Cesiak), which in fact is a tourist resort that exceeds the limitations established by the Ecological and Territorial Regulation Program of the ecological reserve, Profepa authorities have not performed their duty, despite the massive destruction. They added that it is time for the proper authorities to take action and put a stop to the ecocides in Sian Ka’an, as that will only lead to devastation. They further urged ecologists and the general public to raise their voices and not allow the destruction of the biosphere to continue…Respuesta.

UPDATE to this post:
This is another great example of local press slamming small eco businesses (maybe they’re not perfect, but they’re not a giant concrete box hotel!) while saying nothing about the massive developments that are planned for the area, or the one that already exists (Eurostars Blue). What’s up with this? Whose side is the press on? Clearly, not that of small business owners. Who’s paying them off?

Francisco Canul. Amidst other blunders to his name, Luis Jorge Morales Arjona, a Profepa officer in Quintana Roo, publicly confirmed that the Hotel Eurostars Blue Tulum is in fact owned by the Bribiesca Sahagun brothers. He also turned out to be a liar and corrupt because said resort began construction in 2002, and not before the 1981 executive order that gave rise to Tulum’s National Park, as he’d publicly stated. Morales Arjona told a newspaper that the properties owned by the Bribiesca Sahagun family would be sanctioned, as he assured that the resort located within the National Park date back to before the executive order… Quequi

Reminiscent of an operation to fight delinquency and organized crime, officers from the Federal Investigations Agency and Federal Public Ministry appointed by the Attorney General are launching an offensive against two hotels: Diamante K, owned by Roberto Palazuelos and John Kendall’s Mezzanine. They state that the purpose of their actions is to corroborate that the Profepa’s decision to close down the hotels is not being ignored.

By Veronica Alfonso…The protection order filed by the firm AL&A, Asesoría Legal y Asociados S.C, headed by Virgilio Octavio Gutierrez Arreguin, is intended to make Profepa comply with the resolution signed in the agreement of July 15th, so that business may continue as it was before the hotel was closed down. Gutierrez Arreguin, the hotel’s legal representative, said that six days have already passed and Profepa has still not complied with the order remove the closure notice…el Quintanarroense.

By Maria Cristina de la Cruz. Unofficial sources revealed that the protection orders are being studied, and there will soon be new rulings that might favor the petitioner, and therefore disfavor the Profepa. The Profepa closed down seven hotels and warned that it would sue those hotels that ignored their actions, while the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced the demolition of three lodgings for violation of the Decree that created Tulum’s National Park and, among other things, for not having made the necessary land and environmental impact studies…Quequi.

By Victor Flores. After a federal judge’s ruling against the Profepa’s decision to close down two hotels in Tulum, the president of Cancun’s Hotels Association, Jesus Almaguer Salazar, stated that the Profepa’s exaggerated actions in a vulnerable context like that of the tourism industry, only hurt the country and don’t solve anything, stating that it’s a shame that situations like these cannot be resolved through dialogue, but rather depend on a judge and an excess of public force. In that respect he also added that we’ve asked the Secretary of Tourism Rodolfo Elizondo to intervene. Almaguer Salazar assured “we’re not asking for immunity, but rather investment security and that the destination’s image not be tainted, since here is where 41% of the country’s tourism capital are generated…” Quequi.

By Angel Euan. After the Profepa’s recent accusations against two hotels that had been closed down and yet continued operations, officers from the Federal Public Ministry, accompanied by two experts and three secretaries, initiated an investigation. Just days after the Profepa’s Luis Jorge Morales Arjona announced that a report had been filed at the Attorney General’s office against the owners or representatives of hotels Diamante K, owned by the actor Roberto Palazuelos, and Mezzanine, owned by the American John Kendall, who continued business despite having been closed down…Por Esto.

By Veronica Alfonso…The inspection was carried out at approximately 12:30 pm, when seven employees from the Attorney General’s Office began touring the premises, first Diamante K, owned by Roberto Palazuelos, where they introduced themselves as officers from the Public Ministry instructed to comply with a judicial order, and provided no further information to the managers of the 30-room hotel. They later headed to the hotel Mezzanine, owned by American John Kendall, where they proceeded in the same fashion, making sure that the 15 closure notices posted the month before would remain in place, (13 of them for environmental impact reasons and 2 for land use reasons), which the businessmen allegedly lacked…el Quintanarroense.