A plan of Xcalak shows the marine protected area and other village sites. |
“We
want tourists, but not too many,” say the 400 inhabitants of Xcalak, a village on
Mexico’s southeast coast. They’ve taken steps to protect the area, but that may not
be enough to keep developers at bay
Xcalak, on the Caribbean
coast of Mexico, is no less than a paradise, blessed with 14,000 hectares of coastal
land and 3,000 more of offshore lagoons. The area is part of the Meso-American Barrier
Reef, the second largest in the world and home to a vast array of fish, turtles,
shellfish and manatees. Its verdant expanses of tropical forest contain spider and
howler monkeys, jaguars, swamp crocodiles and 155 bird species.
Each morning, most of Xcalak’s 400 inhabitants make for the sea to catch fish, lobster
and conch, an activity that now competes with the first stirrings of tourism. Five
years ago, the villagers realized their catches were shrinking due to the environmental
damage inflicted by unauthorized fishermen and tourist guides. In response, the locals
decided to look for ways to protect fish stocks and diversify their income sources.
Helped by experts from Quintana Roo University and the Rhode Island University Coastal
Resources Center (CRC, see
previous pages),
the villagers persuaded the federal government to designate the area as a national
marine park on June 5, 2000. They were also named responsible for its upkeep. To
protect the area and satisfy everyone’s interests, the land was divided into six
zones. The first was reserved for fishing, the second for tourism, the third for
game fishing, the fourth for fish-breeding, the fifth was closed in winter and the
sixth was set aside for conservation of plant and animal life.
This is all and well, but a greater danger seems to lie ahead. “Now, the village
is threatened by a government project called the Ruta Costa Maya (Mayan Coast Road),
which aims to make Xcalak part of a major tourist development plan,” says biologist
Marco Lazcano, executive director of Amigos de Sian Ka’an, an NGO involved in several
programmes to protect the region. Ruta Maya’s goal is to include Xcalak in a massive
tourist resort similar to the sprawling one in Cancún, 300 kilometres north
which receives two million tourists a year. Along with improving access roads, Ruta
Maya plans to build 14,000 hotel rooms.
“It would be unthinkable to stay outside this development project when you’re a village
whose only access road has recently been repaired after Hurricane Mitch devastated
it in 1998. What’s more, we’re only served by one bus a day,” says Lazcano. Xcalak
has no electricity, but it hopes to be hooked up to the grid in a couple of months.
The villagers, however, remain wary. “They don’t want huge steel and concrete buildings
going up along their beaches, their wooden houses replaced or their unsurfaced streets
ripped up. They want to have a say in the Ruta Maya project to make sure the development
is balanced,” Lazcano explains. “The coastal area is protected, but the rest of the
village on dry land wants to be part of the development that’s coming to the whole
region. Villagers are trying to achieve that without giving up their fishing—the
heart of their identity—and without harming the ecosystem.”
“They’re worried about their future and know that the only chance they have of preventing
a tourist invasion is by getting together to preserve their community and not let
it be overwhelmed by developers,” he adds
Xcalak is nevertheless adapting. It can already boast a couple of small hotels, with
capacity for between 12 and 30 people, and another five are planned on the outskirts.
To prove their good faith, some villagers have even begun learning English and taking
courses on customer satisfaction.
Amigos
de Sian Ka’an. Apdo. Postal 770. Cancún, Quintana Roo 77500, Mexico |
