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Every August about 4,000 octopus fishermen and their families descend on the village of Celestun, a ramshackle beach community on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The fishers stay for five months, nearly doubling the population of Celestun, and straining already overloaded community services. This is not some time-honored tradition, but yet another sign of the desperate scramble for resources in this paradise of sunstruck beaches, muddy mangrove swamps and salty backwaters.
For the conservationists of Pronatura-Peninsula de Yucatan, the fishermen are another piece in the puzzle of how to meet the daily needs of a rapidly expanding human population while helping them conserve natural resources for their future. While some urban populations have difficulty seeing their connections to the wild environment, the people of the Yucatan understand their dependency. "They know they rely on what nature can provide," says Susana Rojas, director of Pronatura.
The nonprofit, grassroots group is dedicated to conserving the wildlife and fabulously diverse ecosystems of the Yucatan, which juts like a shrugged shoulder into the Caribbean Sea. In collaboration with the Mexican government, Pronatura helps manage the Celestun Special Biosphere Reserve, a 146,000 acre (59,130 hectare) complex of seaside wonders under human pressures from all sides. "Our job is to make people allies in conserving this area," Rojas says.
Like much of the Yucatan, Celestun is suffering the aftershocks of the collapse of the peninsula's main industry, henequen, an agave fiber used for ropes and twine. Due to competition from Brazil and the rise of synthetic fibers, the Yucatan's "green gold" began to wither in the 1950s. Encouraged by the government, farmers planted monocultures such as corn and citrus with disastrous results in the thin, peninsular soils. Also with government incentives, others began migrating to the coast in search of work.
Octopi thrive on the broad continental shelf. On a good day, boatmen catch 35 kilos of the slippery mollusks and collect $3 per kilo. But biologists fear the fishery is overtaxed and could decline.
There aren't many employment opportunities in the area. Some former farmers seine shrimp out of the estuary. Others harvest salt from evaporation flats. Firewood sellers hack at the mangroves, which serve as nurseries for fish and shrimp and are supposed to be protected. Pronatura is offering sustainable alternatives, including ecotourism, which has good potential in an area with golden beaches, sea turtles and, best of all, the northern hemisphere's only mainland flock of flamingos.
The group is also training fishermen and farmers-turned-nature- guides who now show boatloads of tourists around the estuary. With support from the regional government, Pronatura is helping local fishermen learn how to raise blue crabs, which can be sold to restaurants serving tourists. With Pronatura's guidance, women are making souven-irs out of seashells, another renewable resource.
Sampling ceviche in one of Celestun's coastal cafes, Susana Rojas acknowledges, "Saving this reserve is a challenge with more arms than an octopus; we'll have to be creative."
Contact: Pronatura-Peninsula de Yucatan, Calle 1-D #254-A x 36 y
38, 97120, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, 52/99-44-2290, (tel/fax),
This article is provided from the Rainforest Alliance's Tropical Conservation Newsbureau,
based in San Jose,Costa Rica. For more information, contact Diane Jukofsky or Chris Wille,
Rainforest Alliance, Apdo. 138-2150, Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Phone: 506-240-9383;
Fax: 506-240-2543; Email: infotrop@sol.racsa.co.cr
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