media stories:

San Jose Mercury News

Posted on Wed, Oct. 26, 2005

Latin America in brief

MEXICO

Preservation deal reached for coastal land

U.S. and Mexican conservationists and communal landholders agreed Tuesday on a plan to limit further development of about 110,000 acres of coastal land around a northern Mexico lagoon that serves as a calving ground for gray whales.

Members of the communal landholding group Ejido Luis Echeverria and the conservation groups Pronatura of Mexico and the Imperial Beach-based Wildcoast agreed to preserve the Laguna San Ignacio, a pristine lagoon about 450 miles south of San Diego along Baja California's Pacific coast. The site is home to wetlands frequented by migratory birds and mangrove swamps that feed the fishing industry.