Mexican Biosphere Reserve Threatened by Saltworks
11/21/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
Mitsubishi Corporation continues to live up to its environmental
outlaw reputation. A proposed salt factory threatens the El Vizcaino
Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, the largest habitat preserve in Mexico.
The project would adversely effect the last spawning and nursing
ground for the endangered California gray whale. The preserve is
home to many threatened species, including the berrendo antelope
which is in danger of extinction, the Mexican and peregrine falcon,
peninsula pronghorn, white pelican, golden and fishing eagles and sea
turtles. Large areas of mangroves cover the shore from erosion.
Eight percent of the flora found in the region is unique to the
preserve. Surely there are salt reserves which can be accessed
without degrading one of the few remaining biological gems in the
area. If such decisions continue to be made purely on economic
grounds, I am quite certain we can find reasons to destroy all
remaining natural areas.
g.b.
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ITEM #1
Title: Battle over Baja salt factory rages on
Source: Environment News Network, http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 18, 1999
A gray whale frolicks in Laguna San Ignacio, where the Mexican
government and Mitsubishi Corporation have proposed the world's
largest salt factory.
The six-year, uphill battle to build the largest salt factory in the
world at Laguna San Ignacio, Baja, Mexico, continues to collect its
foes - the latest being the city of Los Angeles. The largest salt
factory in the world just happens to be planned for Mexico's largest
natural preserve.
The salt works is a joint venture of the Mexican government and
Mitsubishi Corporation and the area targeted for it along the Baja
coast is as yet untouched by industry and is the last spawning and
nursing ground for the endangered California gray whale. Conservation
groups, American celebrities and esteemed scientists all claim the
factory will destroy the lagoon and the reserve's flora and fauna.
"The world's largest corporation wants to build the world's largest
salt factory in an area with four levels of legal protection which is
also the last pristine breeding and birthing ground for the gray
whale. There are only 60 western pacific gray whales left," said
Jared Blumenfeld, director of the International Fund for Animal
Welfare.
In July 1994, a joint venture under the name of Exportadora de Sal,
S.A., called ESSA, submitted the first environmental impact
assessment on its plans to build the salt evaporation facility. The
Mexican National Institute of Ecology, INE, rejected the EIA on the
basis that the plan was incompatible with Laguna San Ignacio's
protected status.
A Mexican coalition of environmental groups promptly formed the
Coalition to Save Laguna San Ignacio to oppose the salt factory in
the preserve. The International Fund for Animal Welfare and the
Natural Resources Defense Council were asked to join the coalition in
January 1995.
A second EIS is being translated into Japanese for employees of the
Mitsubishi Corporation, who will review the EIS and decide whether
they want to continue with the project. The INE has final say on the
project's approval or denial. ESSA and the Mitsubishi Corporation
have vowed not to proceed if the EIA determines that the project
would be harmful to the environment, according to Mitsubishi.
"We're trying to convince Mitsubishi it's not in their best interest,
as an environmental corporate citizen or in terms of looking at the
bottom line, to submit the EIS to the INE," said Blumenfeld.
The Mexican government has also been the target of protests - the
coalition erected anti-salt factory billboards in Mexico City, said
Blumenfeld.
A group of 34 prominent scientists, including nine Nobel laureates
publicly stated that Mitsubishi's project poses "an unacceptable
risk" to the lagoon's biological resources. Nearly one million people
around the world have sent letters of protest to Mitsubishi and t is
past August, international parliamentarians passed a resolution
urging Mitsubishi not to proceed with its proposed project, according
to the NRDC. Despite protests, Mitsubishi forges ahead with its plans
for the salt factory.
ESSA has operated another salt factory for 45 years in nearby
Guerrero Negro and Ojo de Liebre Lagoon, 87 miles away from the new
proposed site, but it has reached its capacity, according to ESSA. In
December 1997, 94 dead sea turtles washed ashore near the salt
factory. The deaths were tied to an increase in salinity in the
lagoon caused by the salt factory.
Nearly 300 violations of 22 different laws were filed against
Mitsubishi regarding the Guerrero Negro site. Thatprompted a
coalition of more than 50 Mexican environmental groups to file
criminal charges. Other scientific reports show that the Guerrero
Negro salt works has disturbed whale migration patterns, dumped
batteries and combustible fluids and destroyed bird-nesting areas,
according to the NRDC.
The City of Los Angeles decision to oppose the salt factory makes it
the fifth California city to do so along with San Francisco,
Berkeley, Sacramento and Poway.
In 1997, NRDC hosted celebrities like Jean-Michel Cousteau, Glenn
Close and Robert Kennedy Jr. on a visit to the proposed salt works at
San Ignacio.
The coalition's main concern is that the salt factory will disrupt
the ecological balance of the area and especially the potential loss
of prime gray whale nursing habitat. The preserve, which is a United
Nations World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere
Reserve, is home to many threatened species, including the Mexican
and peregrine falcon, peninsula pronghorn, white pelican, golden and
fishing eagles and sea turtles.
Mangroves, a small tree that protects the shore from erosion and
birds also live in the area. Eight percent of the flora found in the
region is unique to the preserve and it is also the last refuge for
one type of antelope, the berrendo, which is in danger of extinction.
The gray whale (Eschrichtus robustus) is a baleen whale that makes
the longest migration of any mammal. After spending all summer in the
Arctic seas, the gray whales complete a 10,000-mile journey down the
Pacific Coast to its breeding lagoons in Baja California, Mexico, and
back again to the Arctic. Approximately 25,000 known gray whales are
still living and about 6,000 making the journey to the Baja area. Of
that group, approximately 2,000 enter lagoons along the coastline and
about 350 enter Laguna San Ignacio, according to Mexico's government
census.
North and west of the lagoon extend miles of natural salt flats. Salt
water has flooded the area over hundreds of years and created these
salt flats slowly, allowing the surrounding ecosystem to adapt. Salt
flats serve the important function of allowing high tides and storm
water to spread into the desert without flooding the mangrove forests
and other plant and animal habitats.
The result today is thousands of acres of level, virtually lifeless
areas with an abundance of sun, wind and an impermeable soil base,
according to ESSA.
The controversial salt evaporation facility is proposed for operation
on 116 square miles of coastal tidal flats and mangroves. Pumps,
operating night and day, would draw in 6,000 gallons of saltwater per
second, creating a salt stockpile. Fuel and water tanks, a 1.25-mile-
long pier with a shipping dock and conveyor belts, workshops,
headquarters buildings and facilities are also part of the plan.
Every aspect of the new project has been designed and planned with
the preservation and protection of the local environment in mind,
according to the ESSA web site.
There are few other locations in the world that can accommodate this
type of project and, without additional sources, demand for salt is
projected to exceed capacity within the next decade, according to
ESSA. If the propose site is approved by Mexican National Institute
of Ecology it will take 10 years to become fully operational.
The El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve is the largest habitat preservation
reserve in Mexico, covering an area of 60,706,449 acres. The Sierra
de Baja California mountain range serves as the its western border.
In the center is the Vizcaino Desert, spanning all the way to the sea
in the vicinity of the San Ignacio lagoon. To the East are mountains
and volcanoes, as well as some plateaus and depressions. On the west
coast there are many bays, lagoons, canals and islands.
ITEM #2
Title: Mexico saltworks could harm environment-UN report
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 18, 1999
MEXICO CITY, Nov 18 (Reuters) - A U.N. report made public on Thursday
warned of the potential environmental impact from a saltworks that
Mexico and Japan's Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) have proposed near Latin
America's biggest wildlife sanctuary.
``The proposed new saltworks at Laguna San Ignacio (in northwest
Mexico) would transform the landscape of a large area near and
partially inside the World Heritage site,'' said a report by U.N.
scientific and cultural body UNESCO, posted on the Internet by
environmental groups.
``Also, there are concerns about the potential environmental and
socio-economic effects,'' said the report, slated to be presented to
the U.N. World Heritage Committee next week.
The report had been keenly awaited both by environmental groups,
which strongly oppose the project, and by the Mexican government and
Mitsubishi, which own 51 and 49 percent of salt-exporting company
Exportadora del Sal (ESSA).
ESSA already operates a saltworks nearby in Guerrero Negro and Ojo de
Liebre lagoon in Baja California state, and argues that the proposed
$150 million plant in the gray whale sanctuary of El Vizcaino would
create much-needed jobs.
The UNESCO report gave its seal of approval to the current conditions
of conservation in the area, saying the gray whale population was not
endangered and was in fact on the rise.
A government source said there would be no decision on the new
saltworks project until an environmental impact study, commissioned
from a group of scientists, was finished.
A team from UNESCO visited the San Ignacio and Ojo de Liebre lagoons,
a designated World Heritage Site, in August this year to evaluate
conservation of the area, also home to sea lions, black sea turtles
and prong-horned antelope.
Although the UNESCO team was not invited to comment on the new salt
works proposal as it has not yet been submitted to the relevant
Mexican authorities, the report noted that the project could result
in significant changes to the ecology.
The warm water San Ignacio lagoon is one of only four in the world
where gray whales come to mate and calve after migrating 6,200 miles
(10,000 km) from the Bering Straits down the Canadian and U.S.
Pacific coast each year.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said the Japanese
company had become ``an environmental outlaw.''
``It is time for Mitsubishi to wake up and listen to the opposition
of 34 of the world's leading scientists, 15 of the world's top mutual
funds (with $14 billion in assets) who will not invest in Mitsubishi
stock (and) 800,000 concerned citizens worldwide who have written to
the corporate giant calling on them to abandon the project,'' said
IFAW head Jared Blumenfeld.