ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Needs

• Modernized irrigation systems and improved technology for the agricultural and livestock industries.
• Modernized technology and training for fishery industry (boats, 4-stroke engines, procesessing, sanitation).
• Expansion of micro-credit, vocational training, and employment programs, especially for women and the elderly.
• Create new sources of employment to deter emigration of local young people.
• Marketing assistance for productive employment products, without the use of middlemen.
• Technical and professional advice for the tourism industry, especially in marketing alternative tourism (such as ecotourism or adventure tourism).
• Technical consultation/advice on how to most productively use ejido land, including the introduction of crops that require less water, less land, and that could be exploited with modern and accessible technology.
• Improved transportation and distribution systems for people and goods, including better roads.
• Expand technical and marketing investments to the nascent cactus industry, which has great potential in response to the world demand for natural foodstuffs and alternative medicine.
• Desalinization technology and additional research on environmental impacts of desalinization and best practices.
• Market-based incentives for best practices in fishing and aquaculture.
• Regulation and monitoring of aquaculture projects in the Gulf of California and along the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur.
• Decentralization of municipal funds and programs to promote community-led development.
• Ejidos need to organize more to collectively lobby the government and nonprofits for economic development assistance.
• Coordination among government agencies and community members in deciding where/how to direct development funds.

Opportunities for Philanthropy:

Giving

• Training on how to utilize technology or how to be more efficient in top three industries.
• Funding that provides ejidos with access to loans in order to expand the market access of their products.
• Investments in modern technology in the three top industries (fisheries, farming, livestock raising)
• Create a coordination mechanism so that government economic development endeavors and community initiatives are in synch, such as a Community Development Corporation or Community Development Financial Institution.
• Research on how to best utilize the region’s resources in a way that is productive and sustainable.
• Programs to promote community organization and collaboration for marketing, distribution and reinvestment.
• Promotion for sustainable economic development projects, such as alternative tourism, organic farming, integrated ranch management, sustainable forestry, and fisheries management.