A Campaign to Support Laguna San Ignacio Conservation Alliance

In February 2005, ICF announced a campaign to protect one million acres of pristine lagoons, beaches, wetlands, and inland areas in Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, Mexico. This site is one of the most important gray whale birthing areas in the world – hundreds of gray whales arrive each spring to give birth and nurse their young in this unspoiled environment.

ICF launched its campaign in partnership with Wildcoast, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pronatura, FMCN, Laguna ARIC, and Ejido Luis Echeverria Alvarez. To date, the campaign has raised over $1.8 million toward a $9 million goal, with $1.5 million coming from NRDC members around the United States. Other ICF donors and partners have contributed $350,000 toward the campaign so far.

Signed in October 2005, the first trust fund at ICF will support a conservation easement on 120,000 acres, effectively restricting development rights and promoting alternatives to industrial facilities and tourist resorts in the area. In exchange, a local nonprofit, Maijañuí, will receive an annual $25,000 grant from ICF that will finance communitybased productive employment projects, such as an aquaculture infrastructure for oysters, an ice factory, a cactus farm, and a new community center.