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"A Wetland of International Importance" International Ramsar Convention, 2005
Positioned at the southwest corner of the United States, and northwest corner of Baja California, Mexico, the San Diego-Tijuana border region is the home of two major global centers. While affluence has been a reality for many in the region, it is mirrored by social, environmental, and economic inequalities for others. Situated along this US/Mexico border in the city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, is Los Laureles Canyon. Home to nearly 40,000 residents, this squatter community has become increasingly developed and degraded, and lacks the basic infrastructure to support this development. Los Laureles Canyon lies within the binational Tijuana River Watershed, and directly flows into one of the most important wetland/salt marsh complexes left in southern California, the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve (TRNERR). The steep hillsides of Los Laureles have been poorly developed, resulting in unstable soils and flooding that destroys the community, and in turn has created severe sedimentation and pollution problems downstream at the TRNERR, as well as adversely affecting the surrounding coastline. With a growing need for bi-national cooperation, staff from the TRNERR, California Coastal Conservancy, City of Tijuana, Municipal Planning Agency of Tijuana, International Community Foundation, and others, are implementing a full scale community based slope stabilization and erosion control project. The project promotes a sustainable approach to the erosion and sedimentation control problem, offering benefits in the environmental, economic, and social realms of the region. While plans for the canyon have been proposed by both the US and Mexico, a comprehensive bi-national plan that addressed the problem at the source was lacking. Taking a holistic view of the issues at hand, a strategy that improves the living standards of an impoverished community has in turn eased the economic burden of attempts at controlling sediment, prevented downstream pollution, and protected coastal ecosystems, marine biodiversity and endangered species. With the recent completion of a technical diagnostic, coupled with the implementation of specific pilot-projects, the area has now become a hotbed for academics and researchers from various fields of study, and is now viewed as an important catalyst for a larger bi-national exchange as well as a model for sustainable development. The Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve’s Coastal Training Program (CTP), has been vital to the success of this project. This NOAA funded program within the NERRS system attempts to “improve resource management for the TRNERR, on both sides of the US/Mexico border, through a progressive program of partnerships and collaboration and high quality “cutting-edge” information exchange between partners and coastal decision-makers”. For more information, please contact: |
