COASTAL AND MARINE PLANNING: THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA, MEXICO, CASE

Jose Luis Ferman (1), Ileana Espejel (2), Alejandro Garcia (1), Antonio Cruz (3), Alejandro Castellanos (3), Oscar Arizpe (4), Georges Seingier (1), F. Rosete (5) G. Bocco (5)

(1) Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Facultad de Ciencias Marinas (MX)
(2) Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Facultad de Ciencias (MX)
(3) Universidad de Sonora (DICTUS) (MX)
(4) Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, 5 Instituto Nacional de Ecología, Mexico´s Environment Ministry (SEMARNAT) (MX)

Abstract
The Gulf of California's environmental planning project began in 1999 as a response from the National Environmental Agency (SEMARNAT) to the approval in the Mexican Environmental Law in 1997, of the coastal and marine planning project. Starting 2001, the three phases of this task are: The Marine Planning Project and The Coastal Planning Project. In this paper we present the preliminary outcomes of these projects. The methodological framework is based on three major techniques, under a Geographic Information System Tool: Environmental zoning, environmental index (pressure, state, fragility and vulnerability) evaluation and environmental policy allocation. The environmental policies considered were protection, conservation and development, as recognized on a national level by SEMARNAT. The marine part of the study area considered waters of the coastal States of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora and Sinaloa. This 260,000 km2 marine area was zoning according to hydro dynamical, bathymetrical and productivity characteristics and lead to the definition of 134 marine environmental units (70 in the Gulf of California and 54 on the Pacific side of the Peninsula). According to a unit's index evaluation, a model was run to allocate environmental policies, resulting in 68% of total marine area suitable for development, 15% for conservation and 17 % for protection. The land part of the study area was defined by a 20 km inland buffer of the coastline of the above mentioned States. A zoning process based on hydrology and administrative limits as well as the official 1:50,000 grid scale of National Geography Agency (INEGI) defined the terrestrial units, linked to a socio-economic and biophysical database. The environmental policies analysis model application resulted in 35% area coverage for protection policy, 45% for conservation and 25% for development policy. The high value for protection is representative of the numerous natural protected areas in the region.

Introduction
Land-use planning can be conveniently coupled to a landscape ecological approach to assure that conservation of natural resources (and thus of biodiversity) is thoroughly taken into account in the planning processes in coastal ecosystems (Recatala et al., 2000). Planning, at different but articulated scales, is usually a government-led process. Social participation, however, is crucial in every planning step, especially to avoid top-down procedures that have proved to be inefficient. Ecological land-use planning allows the incorporation of local knowledge and active participation of local communities (Bocco et al., 2001b).

The objective of this work is to describe the approach mentioned above, and to discuss its use in the evaluation of the Sea of Cortes region (Gulf of California and Baja California peninsula), a coastal arid to semi-arid region in North-western Mexico. The area is exceptional from the landscape diversity (both terrestrial and marine) as well as for its economic productivity (tourism and fisheries).

Recently, an ongoing tourist initiative might be developed. The Nautical Stairway Tourist Project (NSTP) aims to develop the tourist potential, particularly that for nautical activities of the Baja California and the Gulf of California region, while conserving its natural and cultural resources (FONATUR, 2002). The project is sponsored by the Mexican federal government through the Federal Tourist Development agency. The environmental ministry in Mexico (SEMARNAT) was requested to analyze the environmental sustainability aspects of the project.

According to the Mexican environmental legislation, an instrument suitable for such an assessment is a regional ecological land-use planning program (ELUP). The National Institute of Ecology (INE, by its Spanish acronym), an agency of SEMARNAT, conducted the technical study at a regional scale (1:250,000) for the program with the support of regional research institutions.

This paper shares all learned experiences concerning the construction of a data base and SIG to be used in the decision-making process (the main tool for public policy and management, local knowledge, participation and capacity building).

Rationale and methods of landscape ecological zoning and planning
Landscape ecology (LE) deals with the structure, composition and functioning of a given portion of the land surface (Naveh and Lieberman, 1993; Farina, 1998). To this end, it is a goal of LE to systematically delineate landscape ecological units (or land units, Zonneveld, 1995) at different spatial scales. These units are holistic, and encompass geologic substratum, relief, soils, and land cover and land use. A land unit is the minimum homogenous area that can be mapped at a given scale. At very fine scales, this corresponds to a slope facet or ecotope, the field-sampling unit for structure and ecological processes. Social and economic processes can be analyzed also at different scales.

The approach is interdisciplinary and multi-scale, and can be implemented at both the regional and the local geographic levels. Modern approaches in landscape ecology are strongly based on remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technologies. These techniques allowed the inventory and mapping of natural resources of relatively large areas in Mexico (Bocco et al., 2001a). Practical applications of this approach are useful for land-use planning and ecosystems conservation, very especially in inter-tropical, developing countries, where detailed data on natural resources availability may be scarce, non updated or absent (Velazquez et al., 2001).

A landscape approach is thus a convenient tool for coastal zoning, the first step in every land or sea-use planning scheme. Zoning must be coupled to any kind of land-sea capability assessment or land-sea evaluation procedure. Land capability analyses look into the potential adjustment of coastal qualities to coastal land-sea use type requirements. In this way, areas of well adjusted land use can be compared to areas of conflict between potentially desirable coastal land-use and actual coastal land-use.

The approach is relatively simple and straightforward, provided that the data on coastal quality and requirements by a given type of coastal land utilization are derived from remotely-sensed data and field data (Briassoulis, 2000). These are normal procedures in coastal geography, but vary with scale. When working in very large areas, variables are not measured in the field but derived from existing databases through cartographic analytical procedures.

In order to assess a given coastal land-use type, a participatory approach is usually recommended as convenient. Local participation in problem definition, natural resource use and productive plans to be derived form the coastal land-use planning process is key. Despite the government responsibility in legal aspects of planning implementation, it is the involvement of stakeholders from the onset of the procedure that guarantees the success of all planning efforts (Kapoor, 2001).

Stakeholders and their involvement also vary with geographic scale. At the community level, peasant aquaculturists and fisheries organizations are key elements. At the regional level, it usually requires the participation of second level organizations, such as federations of non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, chambers of commerce and producers, among others.

In Mexico, the ministry of the environment (SEMARNAT by its Spanish acronym) has adopted an approach such as the one described here (see www.ine.gob.mx) as a guide for land-use planning.

To perform the analysis, a Geographic Information System (GIS) was developed.

Landscape characteristics of the Baja California region
The region to which we refer in this study is located in North-western Mexico (Figure 1). It encompasses two states of the Peninsula of Baja California and the coastal area of two other continental entities. The major feature is a 1300 km long, 200 km wide (on the average) peninsula, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. The total area is about 279,000 km²; the terrestrial portion covers about 223,000 km ² while the maritime area is about 56,000 km².

Figure 1. The region under study. The Gulf of California is surrounded by the peninsula of Baja California and two other states (Sonora and Sinaloa). It is a borderline region with the United States of America.

The climate is mostly arid to semi-arid. Yearly rainfall may be as low as 50 mm, but areas with 200 mm or less are common. The northern portion of the peninsula has a Mediterranean type rainfall regime, while the southernmost area is tropical dry, with summer rainfalls.

Particular geologic and climatic reasons turn the area unique in the world in terms of biodiversity (Ezcurra, 2001). Four phytogeographic provinces have been recognized: Desertic, Capean, Wetlands and Coastal Dunes. On the basis of flora affinities, 4 floristic provinces occur. Fauna associations match fairly well with the flora distribution and 3 biotic provinces: Californian, Sanlucan and Sonoran.

Geographic isolation explains that nearly 30% of the flora and fauna is endemic to the study area. This is particularly true in the islands of both the ocean and gulf, and the igneous sierras that range between 1,500 to nearly 3,000 masl. Twelve natural protected areas both terrestrial and marine exist in the region encompassing several thousands of square kilometers.

The population in the study area in 2000 was roughly 6 million inhabitants, but mostly concentrated in two or three major urban areas, such as Tijuana in Baja California and Hermosillo in Sonora. Main economic activities are fisheries and tourism, and in some key areas, irrigated agriculture and aquaculture.

The Nautical Stairway Tourist Project (NSTP)
The NSTP is the brand name for the franchise, be launched in the near future, of approximately 25 nautical positions (marinas and smaller facilities), one every 100 nautical miles, around the Gulf of California and Baja California´s Pacific coastline. In every step of the stairway, fuel, water, mechanical assistance and lodging would be provided. The magnitude of these services will vary in every position. There will be major facilities, especially in large tourist centers but also modest supplies in small settlements.

The NSTP would also include 20 small airports and a road bisecting the peninsula to haul boats overland between the ocean and the Gulf. Using an 800 number or a web site, boaters could reserve slip space or buy permits to visit islands along the way (FONATUR, 2002; Quiñones, 2002). According to FONATUR (2002) the region is currently visited by 8,000 boats on a yearly average, but their estimated market is around 500,000 boat owners in the Southern United States. The potential demand triggered by the project will require, by the year 2014, 18,000 slip spaces and 14,000 hotel rooms.

While promoting sustainable development in the region, the project has been criticized by environmentalists because of the potential environmental costs involved and the fragility of the terrestrial and marine ecosystems. In this context, the role of the technical study is crucial. The idea was to formulate an ELUP as an image vision of the entire region where the NSTP would take place, rather than developing an environmental impact assessment. This instrument will be implemented once the ELUP is established as a geographic and ecological framework. In addition, several land-use plans will be developed at local geographic scales during 2002 and 2003 for the places where the NSTP would be operating.

Regionalization and sustained development indicators.
The macro scale regionalization divides the region in six sub regions: Occidental Baja California and Occidental Baja California Sur in the Pacific; Oriental Baja California, Oriental Baja California Sur, Sonora and Sinaloa in the Gulf of California. 54 environmental marine units were defined in the Pacific slope, delimited according to their bathymetry and the extension of the basins in the Baja California Peninsula. 96 terrestrial environmental management units (EMU) were also defined as a result of the combination of basins, hydrological sub-basins, and municipalities. Environmental management units previously defined for the Gulf of California marine ecology regional planning (INE - SEMARNAP, 2000) mixed with the NGO´s conservation priorities planning.

A fragility index was build by adding two indicators: no coastal use change between 1990 and 2000 (indicator of nature quality) and a biodiversity indicator (a sum of mammals, birds and flora potential biotic richness).

Most of the area is characterized by a high to very high fragility, like the Baja California Peninsula and the central and northern coastal zones of Sonora (Figure 2). On the contrary, the areas that have been transformed the most by productive activities have the lowest fragility: from medium to low, like the coast of Sinaloa and the south of Sonora, as well as the large cities in the region.

Figure 2. Fragility index of the Gulf of California region. Darker areas are more fragile than paler ones.

A stress index was calculated adding two indicators: population growth rate between 1990 and 2000 (demography indicator) and a coastal land use change between the same years (a nature transformation indicator).

Figure 3 shows the stress indicator on the coastal territory: a situation opposed to that of the fragility, where areas with high stress (medium to high) are located in the coast of Sinaloa and the south of Sonora and in the large cities of Tijuana and Mexicali in Baja California. The areas with the lowest stress (low and very low) are mostly distributed in the Baja California peninsula and central Sonora, with some isolated patches of medium stress in other large cities.

Figure 3. Stress index of the Gulf of California region. Darker areas are more stressed than paler ones.

Territorial policy ordinances resulted from the study.
A first vulnerability analysis (fragility and stress) (Figure 4) suggests the policies to be assigned (Figure 5), with the necessity of contrasting them with the protected areas management plans; and local (municipalities), economic sectors and state ordinances.

Figure 4. Vulnerability index (stress and fragility contrasted) of the Gulf of California region. Darker areas are more stressed than paler ones.

The assignation of a territorial policies scheme, based on vulnerability, is shown in the following table.

STRESS
F R A G I L I T Y
  Very low Low Medium High Very High

Very low 		1 1 2 4 4
Low 1 2 2 4 4
Medium 2 2 3 4 5
High 2 2 3 4 5
Very High 3 3 3 5 5

Vulnerability: 1.- Very low, 2.- Low, 3.- Medium, 4.- High, 5.- Very High.



Figure 5. Coastal policies proposed by using the indexes. Yellow colors reflect protection policies, green colours demand conservation and other colours promote sustainable coastal economic activities. In the sea darker blue mean protection, medium blue is conservation and lighter blue refers to a sustainable use policy.


USE.- Promotes the current policy of land use in the environmental management unit to keep the actual coastal use. This policy tries to maintain the function and capacities of the ecosystems that are contained in the EMU, despite the use with a rather high intensity.

CONSERVATION.- Promotes the permanency of native ecosystems and their use, without the implication of massive changes in the EMU. This policy looks for the maintenance and function of the ecosystems and, at the same time, the controlled medium intensity use of existent resources.

PROTECTION.- Promotes the permanency of native ecosystems that, because of their biodiversity attributes, extension or particularity, are already or deserve to be included in systems of protected natural areas, whether municipal, state or federal. The use of these natural resources is subjected to the normative defined in the management program defined by the protected area.

Suggested ordinance policies in terrestrial areas
The area, in its terrestrial part, was fragile (56% with high and very high fragility) with a very low and low stress (76% of the regional surface), due to the stress exerted by productive activities which are concentrated on the main cities (13% of high and very high stress), in the south of Sonora and Sinaloa. The result of the regional ordinance is translated as the assignation of policies, basically for the conservation (53%) and protection (29%) of the coastal territory. The rest (17%) is allotted for sustainable use. This coastal policy scheme proposed, (Figure 5) where a dominant policy and other subordinate policies are assigned (intensity of colours in the figure). This is understood as if the dominant policy is applied to the entire EMU, with the exception of the landscape units, where the subordinate policies are applied (definitions are not explained in this paper but can be consulted in the web page of INE (see www.ine.gob.mx). 12 different types of combinations result from the 3 general policies formerly mentioned, with a dominant policy and two or more subordinate policies. From those 12 combinations, four variants have a dominant policy of sustainable use, 5 of conservation and 3 of protection.

Stress and other demographic indicators measure the proportion of current use and the rate of coastal land use change between 1993 and 2000. Since aquaculture was promoted very actively during those years, the southern part of Sonora and the north of Sinaloa appear to have a high and very high stress index.

The potential stress that a large scale, non-sustainable, nautical tourism project would offer to this area is the fragmentation of the coastal landscape. This is one of the strongest impacts, since it implies the need of a later connectivity. The project assumes a considerable increase in hotels, the terrestrial connectivity would also increase, and diminishing the environmental benefits that have presumably caused concentrated development, especially in Sonora and the almost pristine Baja California Peninsula. Moreover, according to the detected tendencies, it can be predicted that, by the year 2014, the stress will increase in all of the Baja California municipalities and several other smaller ones in the other three states, thus, increasing their coastal vulnerability.

Ecological ordinance strategies.
The ordinance policies proposed are assigned to each EMU in the six sub regions. When an EMU has a dominant policy of usage or protection, and it is surrounded by an EMU with a dominant policy of conservation or protection, a strategy of sustainable use with control and/or restoration policies are recommended.

Sub region: Pacific Slope

I. Occidental Baja California
It consists of seven EMUs where only two, in Tijuana, Baja California have a dominant use policy. Both have a secondary policy of conservation and one of them has a secondary policy of protection. This policy is caused by the value of the fragility index, which in turn is caused by patches of coastal sage scrub surrounding the city of Tijuana. Many of the species of coastal shrub are endemic and can be found in hillsides with slopes higher than 30°. The dominant policy suggested for the EMUs of the sub region of the northern part of this region is conservation, with two secondary policies of protection and use. On one side of the area, covering a small part of it, are the towns of the Tijuana-Ensenada tourist corridor, and on the other side, in the upper side of the basin, the Juarez Sierra system. This side has chaparrals and woods, officially protected. The EMU of agricultural coasts has a secondary policy of protection in the high basin because of the presence of a Protected Natural Area in the San Pedro Martir Sierra, which provides water for the agricultural fields in the lower basin. The high-stress portion reflects recent agriculture increase. The southern part of the sub region corresponds entirely to a desert Protected Natural Area. The stress map shows an almost total lack of towns, as well as an almost nonexistent transformation of the natural vegetation. Therefore, the fragility map shows very high and medium fragility areas, caused by the high quantity endemisms.

II. Occidental Baja California Sur
A considerable portion of it belongs to a Protected Natural Area. To the south, in the La Laguna Sierra and Los Cabos rain forest, the endemism and slopes are enough to suggest a protection policy. The rest of the subregion has a conservation-protection policy; with two EMUs that have a secondary policy of sustainable use because includes tourist towns on the coast and agricultural fields. The medium fragility of this EMU is due to the fact that it preferably occurs in low slopes.

Sub region: Gulf of California slope.

III. Oriental Baja California
An enormous very productive valley (where Mexicali, Baja California capital city is located) is for sustainable use, since it has urban and agricultural areas with high and very high stress and low fragility, given by slopes and highly transformed ecosystems. Other EMUs in this area are of conservation, with high and very high fragility; and amongst them, a protection policy EMU with two secondary policies given by the sierras and shrubs with a great variety of species of flora and fauna. Since there are no towns or change in soil usage policies except for a little tourists town, the stress is very low. To the south of the sub region, there is a desert Protected natural area, where one small town is located, and does not cause stress at this scale. The very high fragility is product of the endemism spots and medium slopes. The EMU with a secondary policy of conservation is not inside the PNA and has a medium fragility part.

IV. Oriental Baja California Sur
This sub region has a dominant policy of protection, except for the area of the capital city of Baja California Sur. The rest of the sub region is for conservation and protection, since its fragility is high and very high due to its cliffs and the little transformation of its desert shrubs, rich in species of flora and fauna. There are EMUs where the development projects require sustainable use policies with very strict control.

V. Sonora
There are two EMUs in the sub region: a desert Protected Natural Area to the north with two secondary policies of conservation and sustainable use due to the cities that have agriculture and aquaculture. The other EMU, towards the south, has protection as a dominant policy and conservation as a secondary policy. This area has desert cactaceae and trees, which offer an important biotic diversity. Almost all of the north of the sub region has EMUs with a dominant policy of conservation and a secondary policy of sustainable use, due to the medium and low fragility of the agricultural and aquaculture units on the coast where there also are units with low and medium stress. The high fragility of the sub region is partly due to the high quantity of migratory birds recorded in the wetlands. There is an EMU where the development projects require a policy of use with very strict control.

VI. Sinaloa
This is the sub region with more EMUs with a dominant policy of usage, even though most of them have two secondary policies of conservation that pretend to preserve the rain forest of the sub region. A policy of usage and restoration is recommended for those EMUs with high fragility parts and a policy of use for those EMUs where the fragility is medium.

Assignation of marine ordinance policies
The marine units in the Gulf of California, as well as in the Pacific, have three policies. In the 54 units of the Pacific, 74 % are for sustainable use, 21% for conservation and 5 % for protection. The last two are basically for coastal lagoons and bays whose cleaning capacity is lower than the open-sea littorals, very common in both sub regions.

74% of the marine territory in the Gulf of California is proposed for sustainable use, 20% for conservation, and 6% for protection. Part of it is already protected in the two large marine protected areas. In order to formulate the policy assignment proposal, the results obtained from a cluster of NGO´s (Alliance for the Sustainability of the California Gulf, 2001) was included.

Learned Lessons
Integrating the disperse information has been very assertive, as well as its systematization and incorporation into a GIS, a much needed tool for decision-making. This tool contains specific information that sustains the application of territorial policies on the coastal level.

Promoting coordinated work among the research groups and the NGO has favored cooperation and methodology enrichment, and has also promoted a shared regional vision, sustained on the search of consensus to achieve a regional development based on the sustainable management of the biodiversity and the protection of marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
This study supports some of the initial hypotheses: the region, as it is, can be identified as a unit different from the rest of the country. It has, especially under the point of view of economics, low internal cohesion. The Gulf of California is shown more as a series of areas or sites (groups of urban localities, municipalities or fragmented states) relatively independent, even asymmetric in relation to their political or socio-economical capacity. This is the first GIS planning tool that a Mexican region has for its decision-making process. The majorities of the ordinances are state, local or by economic sectors, but this one allow the states to compare themselves amongst them and to promote regional development strategies.

This region shows a strong link with the United States of America. The territory is linked by a series of productive activities whose relative weight is different depending on whether they are compared toward the inside of the region or outside the region. Micro regional (urban nets) and urban specialization do not function as complementing elements towards the interior of the region itself, but are relatively isolated, and the economic activities function as a group of enclosed communities, dependant of the north or the rest of Mexico.

Given the high fragility and the low stress and low and medium vulnerability of the area, the regional planning strategy results in a dominant policy for conservation and protection of extraordinary and unique biodiversity. The sustainable use policy is dominant for marine ecosystems and the aquaculture dominated costs of Sinaloa. For this reason, it is important to elaborate more on very strict controlled economic activities with management plans oriented toward local and regional sustainability, and including all of the social and productive sectors involved in the coastal zone.

The elaboration of an environmental management strategy for the coastal zone that guarantees the applying and monitoring of the regional ecological ordinance is suggested. This strategy should direct the public policies in the region. The nautical tourism project presents two great challenges from the perspective of fostering regional development considering tourism as an instrument. The first challenge is to adapt to the size and conditions of the market: be a project defined by the market and not by the creation of the product. This would avoid large investments that, on the long run, would turn into non profitable businesses. The second is to conceive the development beyond the construction of infrastructure and enclosed communities that, as successful as they might be as a private business, do not guarantee the sustainable development of the region. It is about avoiding growth schemes that, on the long run, create more costs than benefits, such are other cases worldwide.

The nautical tourism project should make a proposal, which encloses the local economies into the regional development process and the opportunity of keeping the natural attractions and variety in order to stimulate a more responsible environmental culture.

Conclusions
The existence of public access databases and GIS, allows running different models and/or assigning different weights to variables and indicators. The technical bases generated are used during the decision-making process by means of conflict resolution techniques. The participating process needed in order to approve the territorial policies proposal should include state and municipal governments, as well as the users and owners of the natural resources of the coastal zone. The goal of the system itself is to include the results into the design of an economic and ecologic region and the development of environmental policies looking for a future shared vision.

Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to all the people who collaborated in this huge project; the coauthors were the coordinators of the subregions analysis and the main researchers in the GIS. Several regional botanists, zoologists, sociologists and ecologists cooperated with extremely useful data, wisdom and friendship making this work good enough and the team working very amenable.

References