Save Eco Destinations

Australia, Great Barrier Reef

Australia will soon have the world’s largest network of marine parks, Environment Minister Tony Burke has announced. It would expand the number of protected areas from 27 to 60 and span 3.1 million square kilometers — one-third of Australia’s waters.

The network consists of five main zones surrounding each of the country’s states and territories.

“It’s time for the world to turn a corner on protection of our oceans,” Burke affirmed. “Australia today is leading that next step.”

“This new network of marine reserves will help ensure that Australia’s diverse marine environment, and the life it supports, remain healthy, productive and resilient for future generations,” he added.

The Coral Sea

The proposed network extends reef protection in the Coral Sea and would give protection to Australia’s biggest undersea mountain range, the Diamantina fracture zone off the southwest coast, and new parts of the Coral Sea that are vital nesting grounds for green turtles and home to large predatory fish and sharks.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia celebrated the news, calling the plan an “important example to the world.”

Still, the plan is not as ambitious as environmental groups had hoped, as they were pushing for banning all commercial fishing in the Coral Sea.

Fishers, of course, say the plan goes too far. Meanwhile, the Greens argue it does not go far enough.

As for commercial fishers, the government will compensate them with up to AUD 100 million (USD 99.6 million) for keeping them out of some of the new marine parks.

The marine reserves network is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Robin at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve

Sometimes it’s the little things that matter. Whether you consider yourself an eco expert or a newbie, skim this list in case there’s something new in there for you! And please feel free to add to it in the comments section.

This planet is yours, mine, and everyone else’s – this includes non-human animals. It is not anyone’s to trash. It is our home. Let’s humbly bow and thank our Mother Earth for sustaining us, and offer our efforts to be sustainable in return. Join in the cycle of life, not of destruction.

As noted in Eco-Yucatán, the 24^th annual International Coastal Cleanup will take place on September 19, 2009. (You can schedule a clean-up on an alternate date, too.)

Here’s a video with some gorgeous footage (um, for the first 19 seconds) that succinctly sums up what the Intl Coastal Cleanup is about:

Last year, nearly 400,000 volunteers collected more than 6.8 million pounds of trash in 104 countries and 42 US states during the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup — the world’s largest volunteer effort of its kind.

Surf on over here to find a clean-up site in your area and register for the one you want to attend. If no events are going on in your area and/or Sept 19 does not work for you, you can propose a clean-up here. Very flexible for optimal efficiency. Woo!

You can “sign up to clean up” debris such as plastic bottles (plastic everything, really), used condoms (yup – I had to clean these up once at a beach clean-up in Los Angeles), seaweed, and other junk from beaches and waterways here.

For clean oceans and to prevent the unnecessary, grisly death of marine life. photo by www.genetologisch-onderzoek.nl

This event is extra sweet because it’s international and we absolutely need this kind of activism worldwide. You’d think federal or at least state governments would sponsor this sort of thing. But no. Governments just take us to war (hi, U.S.!), take away all funding for domestic violence shelters in the entire state of California (hi, Gov. Schwarzenegger!), and other awesome stuff. (By the way, you can oppose the governor’s grand move by following the link to Stop Family Violence’s action alert, also at the above link, if you’re in CA, or passing along the link to a CA resident.)

P.S. Is anyone else bothered by the fact that corporations are sponsoring this event? I guess they just want consumers to think they don’t suck 100% of the time.

Demonstators block the entrance to Camp Garcia Naval Base January 13, 2003 in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For decades, warships and planes used it as a firing range before it was closed in 2003. A new U.S. congressional report, prepared for a hearing on March 12, 2009, says officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a branch of the Health and Human Services department charged with protecting the public near toxic pollution sites, "deny, delay, minimize, trivialize or ignore legitimate health concerns" of residents exposed to the toxic munitions left behind. Photo from www.cpcml.ca

The U.S. polluted Puerto Rico through live-fire and bombing exercises from WWII until 2003 while it used the area as the biggest training ground for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Forces. 

The Navy is now fortunately trying to undo the damage by cleaning its shit up. But not because they’re a magnanimous bunch. In truth, it’s a response to the Vieques Government and almost 9,300 residents going after the U.S. Govt for polluting their land and burdening the population with illnesses.

Awesome: the Department of the Interior wants to turn the area into a wildlife reserve once it’s cleaned up. Yay. And small portions of the area including undeveloped beaches have already been opened to the public as a wildlife refuge by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sucky: to “clean it up” by getting rid of hazardous unexploded munitions, the Navy wants to detonate them in the open air. Actually, it’s already started conducting these explosions. The Navy also wishes to burn 100 acres of tropical jungle to find where the hell they placed cluster bombs and explode them.

Imagine the smoke, violent noise (causing mass anxiety and general disruption, I presume), destruction and other crap that would – once again – plague the region’s humans, non-humans, and ecosystems if the Navy goes ahead with this at full capacity.

photo by NOAA - ccma.nos.noaa.gov

Naturally, the locals are pissed and suspicious. For a long time now, locals have resisted the Navy’s operations on their home land. And they know this clean-up scheme will screw them once more.

“The great majority of emergency room visits here last year were for respiratory problems,” said Evelyn Delerme Camacho, the mayor of Vieques, PR. “Can they guarantee that contaminants or smoke won’t reach the population? Would we have to wait and see if there’s a problem?”

Head of the Navy’s Vieques restoration program Christopher T. Penny said that thus far, using a remote-control device to penetrate the vegetation has not yielded favorable results. Further, it unexploded bombs are too powerful and therefore unsuitable to be exploded in detonation chambers. Nice bullshit detector.

EPA reps defend the Navy and claim its plans are standard protocol. EPA deputy director in San Juan Jose C. Font went as far as to say the detonations do not pose a threat to human health (um, what about the fauna and flora, genius?) – if limited (what is “limited”?) amounts go off at a time and the wind remains calm. He said that the air quality would be consistently monitored throughout the detonations.

"A gift for Vieques from Clinton and the U.S. Navy" - photo by thegully.com

Gee, with the stellar reputation of the U.S. throughout the Americas, not to mention globally, I’m sure the peeps at Vieques will trust the EPA’s every word and take a chill pill.

After all, the TNT, napalm, depleted uranium, mercury, lead and other chemicals, including PCBs, all potentially present at Vieques are all harmless.

Oh – also, the EPA said the cleanup could last up to a decade.

Excuse me?

Bastards!

More bullshit:

“In 2003, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which assesses health hazards at Superfund sites, concluded that levels of heavy metals and explosive compounds found in Vieques’s soil, groundwater, air and fish did not pose a health risk.

Really? That’s funny, because cancers of the breast, cervix and uterus have increased by 300% over the past 20 years.

But this year the registry agency said it would “rigorously” revisit its 2003 finding, and its director, Dr. Howard Frumkin, plans to visit Vieques on Wednesday to meet with residents.”

PR is asking Obama to get his ass in gear and “achieve an environmentally acceptable cleanup” and “closely monitor the health of the people of Vieques and promote appropriate remedies.” It is the least the U.S. could do. The least.

Because if those bombs are not removed, accidental explosions could take place. Any. Time. Actually, this may happen regardless.

“The real risk is that there’s no technology available that would guarantee that they’ve removed every piece of ordnance,” said Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, an assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Always shitting on everyone. I am so sick of their bullshit. I guess ignorance is bliss. Just reading Naomi Klein’s Disaster Capitalism, for example, makes my blood boil. My mother has had friends “disappear” during a dictatorship funded by the U.S. Government in the late 1970s. I won’t even get into Pinochet. Jesus Christ…

Some good news:

Once the whole mess is over, locals want to use the area for ecotourism too, and housing. These people live in poverty.

Fishers are already enjoying catching their prey in peace, and endangered turtles such as the loggerheads might finally be able to reclaim the land for nesting once the chaos subsides.

Source: NYT.

Could it be? A truly eco-friendly jungle haven for those who can afford it you can live in without ruining the local ecosystem? Holy cow.

Selva de Aluxes is 300 acres between Cancun and Playa del Carmen. Currently in the works, lots are going at pre-sale prices. These lots are meant to have houses built on them.

And (do you hear the music?) they claim that officials are respecting “eco-friendly restrictions as a way of preserving the environment and natural habitat.” For fresh water, they are drilling into the earth to install a well, which is a lot better than trucking fresh water in every day like other establishments (even “eco” ones) do. Right on the homepage, it reads:

“We are dedicated to preserving the ecosystem with infrastructure standards that include the use of windmill turbines, solar panels, air generators and a host of other environmentally friendly techniques.”

There will be a community center with art shows and live music—ahem, noise and light pollution! (Remember their effects on the endangered sea turtles, anyone?) Well, its impact on the ecosystem would depend on location, noise level, and other factors. I’m still skeptical. And you know why you should be too? Because there will be a landing strip for small aircrafts. Really, it’s right on the homepage.

Sounds like these people have good intentions but they’re not very smart. Or they really don’t care about preserving the tranquility of nature for the benefit of the local ecosystem—and they’re bad at hiding it.

Apart from that, there aren’t many details yet. The wind and solar energy factor is comforting, however. And the drilling of the well instead of bringing in water.

Well, then, I’m hopeful. It is, in any case, some kind of step forward.

But, you know: it’s like all these eco retreats and activities and developments right in the midst of nature—if you were really eco, you’d leave it alone, right? That’s how I feel.

I mean, sure, it’s great to be in nature. I go to my local ecological reserve to paint, read, hang out by the water and hear the river’s soothing sounds calm me. But I’m not going to build a home there, even if my excrement was to exit my super excellent eco sewage treatment system smelling of wheatgrass. I just go, enjoy myself, pick up any trash I see, and go back home without causing any destruction.

But, hey, what are you gonna do? It’s not like we can shoot down everyone who walks all over nature. For now.

Xcacel-Xcacelito sanctuary map

If you’ve been keeping up on Xcacel-Xcacelito through the blog or elsewhere, you know that Grupo Posadas has been intent on building a resort on one of the most important turtle nesting sites in the world. These creatures are the loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonian mydas) sea turtles.

Due to shady business between the federal and state governments and third parties, Xcacel-Xcacelito went from being a protected site to a patch of land up for grabs to the highest freakin’ bidder.

Even though this area used to be protected, as it belonged to a region declared protected back in 1998, it is no longer under jurisdiction of the state government. Being now in the federal government’s control, it was commercialized.

Grupo Posadas took advantage of the perilous situation the sanctuary found itself in and recently purchased the area free of legal repercussions regarding nature conservation and so on.

Take action

What we can do is email people in power in the Mexican Government, tell them how wrong we think this is, and do our best to influence them to turn things around. To take this land out of corporate hands and back into nature and the people’s.

I’ve found information on who to email; these are people influential in making decisions regarding whether to keep Xcacel-Xcacelito as an unviolated nesting site or turn it into a corporate wasteland.

The Mangrove Action Project has a sample letter you can email Mexican President Calderón and other folk in the Mexican Government.

Please send them an email.

With so many tourists making the idyllic beaches of Quintana Roo-Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, etc. their destinations, they are taking a toll on the local endangered sea turtles.

As well, it’s become fashionable to celebrate weddings and honeymoons on these coasts. (Hey, I don’t blame these people – those coasts are gorgeous!)

In packed places like Cancun and Playa del Carmen, beaches are swamped with hotels, condos, restaurants, and other tourist attractions that exude bright lights and noise pollution. Severe beach erosions have also damaged or destroyed many of the turtles’ nesting sites.

Some biologists have shown laudable dedication and worked to coax some establishments into adopting certain turtle-friendly measures (ok, less turtle-hostile measures). These include putting out or redirecting their lights, withdrawing camastros, chairs and other portable furniture, and advising guests and employees to stay away from the turtles altogether. These measures are crucial, as anything that hinders turtles’ reproductive activities further endangers these animals.

Fortunately, these serene turtles can still count on Tulum and nearby beaches for respite. Since this part of the coast is less ridden with resorts and other buildings, the area provides turtles with a more tranquil habitat.

It is still necessary, however, for turtles to have pristine and peaceful havens if they are to reproduce at normal rates (which are already low!). For this purpose, there do exist certain restricted areas, although they do remain largely unsupervised.

How coastal weddings harm turtles

Habitually, weddings and their corresponding celebrations take place at night – turning normally dark, deserted, and quiet beaches into bright, loud, and chaotic spaces. These wedding practices screw with turtles’ spawning rituals, causing the animals to return to sea without taking care of their reproductive business.

Baby turtles at night

Exacerbating this is the fact that both turtle spawning season and low tourist season (during which flight and hotel reservation costs drop, which draws tourists in) coincide. Both seasons begin in April-May.

As you’ve probably already guessed, no legal restrictions exist in Mexico to protect sea turtles from such situations. Celebrations may legally take place any time of the year on any beach at any time. Sweet, huh? Not for the turtles!

At one point, Tulum was under the influence of rules that protected turtles during spawning season. But now they are obsolete. Many greedy hotel owners choose to invite their guests to do whatever the hell they please as long as they pony up the money, instead of respecting Mother Nature.

At the same time, there are some conscientious hotel owners make efforts to protect local ecosystems and thus prohibit noisy and bright events that would take place after dark. This is another reason to stay at an eco-hotel wherever and whenever you travel.  (Please check the “Lodging” category for posts with links to some eco-hotels around the world and peruse our blogroll, directories, and organizations lists on the right-hand column.)

Sea turtle populations on the Mexican Caribbean have already declined drastically from their original numbers. We owe it to our planet to play eco-nice.

You can read more on the issue here, and about the Xcacel-Xcacelito red alert here, here, here, and here.

Restricted Area: Marine Turtles' Nesting Ground

As you might have expected, not much has changed since I last posted about the ecocide alert by the Grupo Posadas at Xcacel-Xcacelito. Essentially, the turtles are going down.

The Grupo Posadas claims to have acquired the necessary permits to build in the area, and also claims that the development will not go on in it but subjacent to it, and that consequently the development will not harm the Xcacel-Xcacelito ecosystem. Yeah–tell that to the turtles.

Anyway, the Mexican environmental and urban development authorities, in turn, claim the Grupo Posadas is pulling this information out of their ass. They said that they have not been involved in the procuring of any permits for these corporate hypocrites, and that no building permits are in the works for the area either. Further, they said that any legal complaint must go to Tulum, as the area is out of their jurisdiction. Huh?

And so, the Grupo Posadas goes on destroying the endangered turtles’ nesting ground and national reserve area and is getting away with it scot-free. Environmentalists can do nothing but roll around in their own frustration, as nobody else seems to care, or at least not enough to do something tangibly useful. The Mexican government, meanwhile, washes its filthy hands in the blood of endangered species plus air, water, and noise pollution.

Maybe they’ll care many years from now, once the country’s popular tourist spots turn murky and putrid, resorts shut down, and locals become the regular victims of cancer and other deadly ailments brought about by humans’ greed and stupidity. Maybe they’ll care–once it’s too late.

Xcacel-Xcacelito

Ludivina Menchaca Castellano, senator of Quintana Roo, deserves a gigantic thumbs up.

She is asking the authorities to stand up for Xcacel-Xcacelito. Menchaca Castellano might be one of the too few to be disheartened about the incompetence and selfishness of state and federal authorities for not doing their job of looking after Mexico’s protected ecosystems-in this case, the turtle reserve at Xcacel-Xcacelito.

She pointed out that the General Wildlife Law, while prohibiting any construction in mangrove zones, doesn’t, well, exactly work. Essentially, it is not so much prohibitive as it is restrictive. It doesn’t stop touristic developments from being built in the country.

An augercast pile grid

Investors must understand, then, that ways have changed, she said: “we currently count on new technologies that allow for construction that abides by the new ecological parameters, in other words, the mangrove can be protected through new building methods-in which you use piles-so as not to touch the mangrove and permit the hydrological flow to take its course.”

It seems that thanks to Menchaca Castellano, investors taking part in the local ecocide must restructure and adapt their plans in order to minimally affect the mangrove. In most of Mexico’s tourist spots, thus far, the concept of ecology has been in absentia.

Menchaca Castellano is encouraging authorities throughout Mexico to keep their eyes on the aforementioned turtle haters of Xcacel-Xcacelito-I mean, the investors-so they don’t get away with anything illegal, causing a catastrophe for the loggerheads and other turtles that depend on the neighboring coast to nest every year.

The senator stressed that the relevant authorities must do their job, and particularly in Quintana Roo, where the ecosystem has been most attacked. Protecting the Xcacel-Xcacelito reserve will be one of the Environmental Commission’s priorities, she said.

Finally!

Now, they will probably be using augercast or CFA piles, which cause the least environmental disturbance, even in terms of noise pollution. (See a diagram.) But, you know, the pumping of concrete mix down the auger and into the ground, is going to be felt no matter what. And the yelling of the construction workers. And the noise made by the cement mixers, the trucks, and so on.

The lesser of two evils is still evil. Shouldn’t we just leave the remaining reserves and preserved ecosystems alone to thrive? Do we even need more hotels?

Scratch that-stupid question-of course we do! It’s only right that the developers’ and investors’ pockets keep getting fatter and the environment be continually desecrated.  Silly me.

Xcacel-Xcacelito. Photo by Titti Alvarado

It all started over a decade ago, with Sol Melía’s unsuccessful attempts at destroying the Xcacel-Xcacelito ecosystem (Quintana Roo, Mexico) for the sake of his hotel chain. Environmental activists have been able to steer Melía off course, but the time might have come for his success in 2009.

The selfish, über-capitalist, global-warming-loving Melía has apparently acquired the necessary permits to build right by a reserve, Xcacel-Xcacelito, which would essentially eradicate it.

This fragile ecosystem is where different species of near-endangered turtles, such as loggerheads and green turtles, go to nest every year. Biologists try to protect their eggs from predators at night during this time of year (May-October).

It seems that Melía’s multinational corporation’s been lobbying, all the while receiving the unconditional blessings of the Spanish government through its embassy in Mexico, if not directly through their Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, another awesome man of the people out to make the world a better place.

Zapatero visited Mexico last year to show his support for the recently “elected” President Felipe Calderón, and to reciprocate the visit he had previously made to Spain. During these meetings, the guilty parties partied with the main Spanish multinational corporations, who just happened to be investing in Mexico. (What a series of coincidences!)

They are all also linked via the Universidad de Quintana Roo (UQROO), Governor Félix González Canto,  and the powerful Quintana Roo Xcaret Group of investors.

I guess the Spanish government and Melía belong to the Global Warming is a Myth! group. Probably to the We’re Corporatists, We’re Rich So We Don’t Care About the Rest of the World group, too. Or maybe they’re just mindless jerks (I’m watching my language, here).

If only more people knew about these developments! If only the mainstream media worked to enlighten instead of to please the corporations that feed it. Part of the work we can do to solve the issues of corporations trying to literally make a killing, is support independent media, help it grow by spreading the word about it to help disseminate the issues we care about that FOX and other poisonous networks wants to cover up.

Read more here, here, and here (in Spanish).

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