Mexican Biosphere Reserve Threatened by Saltworks

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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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/

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

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.

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