Money over nature: in Fox administration, business interests trump environmental concerns on sustainable development.

This time last year, Mexico's tourism officials were still reeling from a major controversy stemming from international press coverage highlighting dangerous levels of fecal pollution at some of the country's most important Pacific beaches.

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Respected newspapers including The New York Times reported that a government study detected elevated water pollution at 16 beach resorts, among them Zihuatanejo, Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. The unfortunate news coincided with spring break for U.S. universities and the popular domestic holiday week of Semana Santa during which tens of thousands flee the cities and make their way to the coast.

Former Tourism Secretary Leticia Navarro was visibly ruffled when challenged at the end of March of that year on the matter at the annual Acapulco Tianguis, the country's most important travel trade show. Meanwhile, then-Environment Secretary Victor Lichtinger roused the ire of Pacific Coast governors when he said he would support investigations into the pollution.

Six months later, both ministers were out. Navarro resigned in July, citing "personal reasons." But when Lichtinger was dismissed in September, one of the reasons insiders gave was his fair, but politically uncomfortable, handling of the embarrassing beach issue.

The day after Lichtinger's dismissal, President Fox held a highly publicized meeting with 40 of the most important investors in the tourism sector, who together represent US$4 billion of global tourism investment.

PUTTING COMMERCE FIRST

Fox promised them the revamped Environment Secretariat (Semarnat) would pay firm attention to business concerns that bureaucratic tape could hold back investments in tourism development projects, which often run counter to environmental concerns, such as clean beaches.

Within two months the government authorized the environmental impact statement for the planned Nautical Steps tourism megaproject in the Sea of Cortez, a chain of 27 marinas that activists say will wreak havoc on the Baja California ecosystem.

The selection of Alberto Cardenas to head Semarnat confirmed a general trend in appointments of ruling National Action Party (PAN) heavyweights as an answer to the midterm election flop. However, non-governmental organizations suspected it also meant a shift in policy away from sustainable development. One month after the Cardenas appointment, the polluted beaches turned up again.

Following the initial reports of pollution in early 2003, several federal secretariats promised to cooperate in making regular evaluations of beach and ocean pollution and launched a nationwide program to monitor amounts of contamination in the waters off major beach resorts.

However, posting the results on the Internet--which was part of the program--was highly controversial and contested by the governor of Oaxaca, who said it had led to reservation cancellations at the state's major beach destinations. Late in the year, the government announced the temporary suspension of monitoring water pollution at its beach resorts.

"Since the turnover of Semarnat's top officials, we have seen a complete change of attitude," said Pablo Uribe of Mexico's Center for Environmental Law (Cemda). He added that the element of sustainability in sustainable development left with Lichtinger and his team. "It is now a secretariat that is trying hard not to be an obstacle to investment, one that doesn't cause unemployment by halting developments, and one that doesn't put a stop to projects."

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Other NGOs expected a significant shift in Mexico's environmental policy for 2004 in key areas such as fishing and tourism.

"Many parts of the legislation Semarnat proposed last year are stalled," said Juan Carlos Cantu, director of Defenders of Wildlife, in citing delayed legislation on shark fishing. Cantu also claimed new Semarnat officials illegally approved an environmental impact study by the shrimping float in October, barely a month after Cardenas was sworn in.

Pending from 2003 was a legal wrangle over the authorization of the hotel Mayan Palace near Cancun. This was halted because the company lied about the hotel's precise location and 12 local Semarnat officials were sanctioned for authorizing false information.

In February, following a report in the newspaper Reforma, environmentalists became concerned that plans were afoot to revoke a controversial law approved during Lichtinger's tenure.

That law, dubbed NOM-022, protects mangrove swamps and coastal wetlands, considering them important ecosystems, and thus protected from major tourist construction. Many of those mangroves are located around Cancun. Environmentalists considered it landmark legislation as it is the first legislation enacted to protect an ecosystem rather than just a species.

BIG PROMISES, LITTLE ACTION

Mexico is on the record for being committed to the development of sustainable tourism, as declared by Fox at the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. This year in March, the government published a full report on beach monitoring. Tourism Secretary Alberto Cardenas said the findings showed that 92% of the 218 beaches monitored were clean for "most of the year." The only three exceptions were Rosarito beach in Tijuana, Rio Cuale in Puerto Vallarta and La Boquita in Manzanillo.

"Tourism policy is clearly outlined, in black and white, in Mexico's National Tourism Program," Tourism Undersecretary Francisco Madrid told BUSINESS MEXICO.

Madrid said the program has four parts, with one of those being the maintenance of sustainable destinations. "This is not an option, but a condition of Mexico's tourism development," he said. He added that the nation's tourism policy remained the same despite the high-level personnel changes last summer.

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Madrid said Mexico has an agenda for sustainable tourism development, called "Agenda 21" that was launched in November 2002, with five tourist destinations. Its core lies in empowering municipal entities to take action. "You have to construct sustainability from the bottom to the top," he said.

Under Agenda 21, local committees evaluate the diagnostics provided by the government's "System of Indicators for Tourism Sustainability" and define programs to address them. Last year saw 15 more destinations added to the list, and this year will probably see another 10. Madrid said water pollution and dirty drinking water tend to be recurrent issues.

CORPORATE INCENTIVES

Sectur has also been working to encourage sustainable development through better practices in companies, by granting the "Calidad Turistica Ambiental" certificate. This began last year with three hotels, and now more than 60 are being seriously considered for it. Although it carries no financial reward, the certificate distinguishes hotels in the oft-times cutthroat Mexican tourism climate.

Other efforts include TV and radio campaigns. The Tourism Secretariat (Sectur) evaluates the campaign's success through a survey conducted among tourists by means of a form handed out at the airport. So far the form, which has a high completion rate, indicates that garbage and cleanliness "is still a problem area," Madrid said.

In the wake of the highly publicized bribe scandal involving Green Party President Jorge Emilio Gonzalez (in which he asked for US$2 million to endorse a Yucatan development project), Patricio Martin--who worked for three years as an environmental lawyer in Cancun--said, "There's no such thing as sustainable development here."

However, Madrid disagreed.

"Cancun is not an example of lawlessness," he said, pointing out that the resort is the first international example of an integrally planned tourism development. "This is the first place where we had discussions of development on this level. It is in many ways the birthplace of current work on environmental legislation."

Cancun would of course be different if developed now, Madrid said, "because it is 40 years later." However, the truth is Cancun continues to be developed.

BATTLE ALONG CANCUN COAST

In March, Semarnat approved the environmental impact study for the third stage, called "Costa Cancun," of the original Cancun project that began in 1974, in a move that environmental groups say is flagrantly illegal and proves sustainable development is dead in the current administration.

Promoted by the Nation's Tourism Fund Fonatur, Costa Cancun entails a mega-golf course, tourist hotel, golf hotel and beach club on 814 hectares south of Punta Nizuc, on the southern-most point of the hotel zone.

The environmental issue at stake is that the land is endangered mangrove swamp, while the legislation being flouted is NOM-022.

"The NOM states you cannot build within 100 meters of a mangrove, and do you know how Semarnat wriggled out of the legal specifications? It said Costa Cancun is not near the mangrove swamp, it is on it," Uribe said in late March.

The law states clearly that only low-impact tourism development is allowed in this area. However, there is no such thing as a low-impact 36-hole golf course, the lawyer explained.

NOM-022 establishes that the flow of water that feeds the mangrove ecosystem must not be impeded, so that any constructions should be on pilots, but it will not be possible to build Costa Cancun without filling the mangrove, which is illegal.

The lawyer Martin in Cancun pointed out that this is not a case where the blame can be laid at Fonatur's door.

"The fund is in a strong legal position. It did not present incomplete environmental impact studies--it did not cheat," he said.

This is the reason why the case of Costa Cancun is so crucial in the debate on tourism and sustainable development. It shows the government dodging its own laws, legislation drafted expressly to ensure sustainable development.

Environmental groups have protested before Ricardo Juarez, Semarnat's director for environmental impact, who is responsible for giving Costa Cancun the go-ahead. However, the legal instrument at their disposal, called a "recurso de revision," will probably take about a year to be resolved, while building is slated to start in two to three months.

"By that time the mangrove will be filled and then it will be too late as irreversible environmental damage will be done," Uribe said, adding he expects moves to revoke the pioneering green legislation as soon as it is legally possible--which is right now. The one-year grace period ended in April.

Madrid said at the end of March that he did not have information about the NOM-022, but Rosario Gomez of Semarnat's information department said in April that there are no plans to revoke it.

Barbara Kastelein writes a weekly travel column for the Mexico edition of the Miami Herald, covers tourism for Fodor's Travel Publications and also writes for The Scotsman of Edinburgh. She covers environmental legislation in Mexico for the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington.

Photos by Armando Saliba