2011 – 2014 RAMSAR. 97,591 hectares for the triad

SEMARNAT, which is precisely the one who is granted the issue of management and protection of mangroves and species in the risk category of flora and fauna, such as waterfowl, since the time of the Presidency of Felipe Calderón. That is, a Ramsar site would be more of a Management Unit for wildlife conservation (UMA), supervised by the General Directorate of Wildlife, and not a Protected Natural Area (PNA) managed by CONANP.

2011 – 2014 RAMSAR. 97,591 hectares for the triad

What did Ramsar's proposal for Bacalar include? Between 2008 and 2009 some academics and researchers from ECOSUR and the University of Milwakee, had been preparing the ground media-mind to create an PNA, promoting forums and working meetings around the urgency of establishing some protection system for the fragile ecosystem of the Bacalar lagoon. But it was not until 2011 that two researchers from the Institute of Ecology of the UNAM (IEUNAM), headed by Dr. Luisa Falcón, specialized in microbial ecology, microbial mats, microbialites and biofilms, in different aquatic environments, and M.C. Osiris Gaona, a specialist in bat microbiomes, unilaterally presented the proposal to incorporate the Bacalar Lagoon as a Ramsar site.

It seems that since they made their proposal for Bacalar, they proposed to get the support of other actors in the triad and this was not only to promote their idea, but to increase the number of hectares they were going to obtain and leave under protection / control, at the expense of whoever it was. The list below exposes not only the actors involved that were mounted in the proposal, but also the number of hectares that each incorporation added to the proposal of Falcón and Gaona:

• 2011. Proposal by the Institute of Ecology of the UNAM. Lobbying researchers, academics, organizations and local governments (5,893 hectares)

• 2014. Incorporation of ECOSUR researchers: Dr. Héctor Hernández Arana (with a specialty in Marine Benthic Ecology), then director of ECOSUR, Dr. Miguel Ruiz Zárate (specialty benthic organisms and, after 2015, remote sensing) and MC Alejandro Vega Zepeda (Marine Ecologist,

GIS and Remote Sensing) to rethink the proposal for Ramsar, now proposing stromatolites and connection with Laguna Chile Verde to the east of the Bacalar system (22,255 hectares).

• 2014. Second proposal. (26,422 hectares), including wetland ecosystems between Bacalar lagoon and Estero de Chac.

• 2014. Third proposal. Expansion of actors involved: Ministry of the

Environment, represented at that time by Mr. Rafael Muñoz Berzunza,

Undersecretary José Luis Funes Izaguirre, the director of the Manatee

Reserve, Biol. Víctor Manuel Hernández and the state director of ordinance regulations. Salvador Poot Villanueva. (92,591 hectares).

This proposal was supported by the city council of Bacalar, chaired by José

Alfredo Contreras Méndez, and the city council of Othón P. Blanco, headed by Eduardo Espinoza Abuxapqui. This initiative was much more ambitious, since it included terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the community-owned territories of 11 ejidos, with 4 population centers, directly affected, as well as another 4 populations, indirectly affected.

Neither ejidos nor settlers were consulted or taken into account. The

Xcalak Reefs National Park, the Manatee Sanctuary, Chetumal Bay (71% of the proposal) were incorporated and the remaining 29% were in "unprotected" areas such as the Estero de Chac (Hernández-Arana, et al, 2015).

• 2014. Fourth proposal. The previous surface did not seem sufficient and finally the body of water, apparently proposed by CONANP, was incorporated. This final proposal had 97,591 hectares.

Actors involved: Ministry of the Environment, represented at that time by Rafael Muñoz Berzunza, José Luis Funes Izaguirre, the director of the Manatí Reserve, Víctor Manuel Hernández and the state director of ordinances Salvador Poot Villanueva.

Also included were the municipalities of Bacalar, headed by José Alfredo Contreras Méndez and Othón P. Blanco, headed by Eduardo Espinoza Abuxapqui. Alfredo Arellano Guillermo was quoted as a representative of CONANP, but the "letter of intent" document does not include the signature of any legal representative of the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas, although in the zoning of this proposal it is stated

that the last 5,000 additional hectares included, which correspond to the lagoon body, were proposed or included at the initiative of CONANP. At the same time, the academics created a parallel proposal to "scientifically reinforce" the Ramsar site proposal. Either as a justification or as a future incorporation, researchers from ECOSUR and the UNAM Institute of Ecology created a more extensive proposal and called it the Bacalar – Chetumal Bay Transversal Corridor. As it usually works for the triad, this parallel proposal generated funds and prestige. This corridor was intended to connect the proposed area of 97,591 hectares and a much wider corridor that included the entire Bay of Chetumal and Mahahual, to the south – east, bordering Belize, to include the Xcalak Reefs National Park (also a federal PNA). The pretext was that all these areas were interconnected and the Ramsar declaration guaranteed the permanence of the biological processes of the interconnected ecosystems, their maintenance, conservation and protection. If they had asked local actors how the Bacalar geohydrological system worked, they would have learned that the most relevant interconnections and significant impacts come from the limits of the upper basin of the system, to the west, NOT to the east as was the proposed corridor. That is, his proposed corridor was at the opposite end, the receiving part of impacts to geohydrological and biological processes. The area of origin of impacts is 300 kilometers to the west between the limits of Campeche and Tabasco, and in the northwest, on the limits of Quintana Roo and Yucatan. There was NOT much to be done to protect the biological processes of the Bacalar area and towards Chetumal Bay, from the impacts that happened upstream. But working with agricultural and forestry communities does not seem to be so cache and, as several researchers of the triad have told me personally, they work with snails, with stromatolites, with water pollution and giving talks in schools or academic events, but they do NOT work organizing people, less of communities. They can give talks to teach people how to "take care" of their environment, but they're not going to organize them. They are not engaged in that (nor are they interested).

In addition, the fact that the proposals have a foundation or have a real positive impact is never the objective of the triad, with sounding scientific for public opinion is enough, as I had to verify on more than one occasion; their intentions are always to benefit them. In the case of the Transversal Corridor proposal, the triad groups were already receiving benefits for proposing the

site, even without having declared it. And they had no qualms about exposing it openly in a presentation made to attract other interested like-minded groups, where they made it clear that the beneficiaries of the opportunities that the Ramsar site would bring to Bacalar, would be researchers and academics, ONGA and authorities.

If we take as an example the proposal of the Coastal Transversal Corridor, which is an initiative of ECOSUR Chetumal, its inclusion in Ramsar's proposal gave it a reason for being and validation to justify that the ERIS antenna that had been under repair the two years before, was being used, at a cost of 4 million pesos; so it was the opportunity to generate a series of projects to get funds and show that they were using this technology for the common good. Between 2014 and 2015, that cost Mexico 15 million pesos, for a research project in which ECOSUR was involved, led by Héctor Hernández Arana, then director of that institution in Chetumal, the Mexican Space Agency, with funds from the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), in an alliance with the united kingdom space agency and the University of Surrey (England) that invested 1.5 million pounds sterling (approximately others). 38 million pesos at the exchange rate of 2015) to perform a remote sensing analysis, which among other things served to justify Ramsar's declaration. 53 million pesos for research that resulted in a series of scientific articles, some interviews, a workshop for scientists, ONGA and government, and merits in the National System of Researchers, but that outside of that, after 6 years, has not demonstrated its practical usefulness in the territory, although it is still used to substantiate its "urgent" requests to establish an instrument of control (after Ramsar, it was the PNA, PROTUR and Critical Habitat, and again Ramsar), more publications, collections and more research. Trying to sell their proposal, in that presentation, the promoters when presenting the supposed benefits of the declaration of the Ramsar site, exposed:

• A joyful account of complementing the objectives of the REDD+ initiative

The Program to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation promoted by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, an international group that from time to time generate carbon to the beast to travel and I will meet for weeks to talk and plan what to do to stop climate

change. As of 2021, they have already held 26 meetings. Going back to 2005, the 11th meeting raised the idea of financing actions for developing countries to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of their ecosystems. Many will wonder why it is not better to stop and reduce the greenhouse gas generating activities of developed countries, well, first because they do not feel like stopping doing what they do, because it gives them pretexo to criminalize the poor countries that have the forests and accuse them that we do not know how to take care of what we have and it is necessary that they pressure us while they control our economies by international pressure and because they they have the money and we underdeveloped needed the money. Like a cycle of international volencia where Daddy World Bank beats mom Mexico, and mom and her favorite children, dispossess, starve and humiliate their weakest indigenous children and local groups to keep the father happy so that he does not starve them and reward them for being obedient. Something like that.

REDD+ has really passed without real results and continues to benefit only consultants and intermediaries. And time serves governments to condi-cionar and get the funds for carbon capture or avoided deforestation. And that it is currently a model where the federal government, through its institutions in the environmental and forestry sector, directly benefit from obtaining carbon credit payments. Even when the areas are under private or communal property, they require institutional authorization, for which, through CONAFOR, it would imply consulting the rest of the environmental bodies of government to obtain their permission, mainly CONANP, if an area were to become a RAMSAR site.

• The economic benefits of biotechnological development, for example, of the cyanobacteria of stromatolites that can degrade pollutants. Well, don't pollutants kill them? The discourse of the triad to criminalize the locals goes to waste with this proposal of the promoters. It turns out that cyanobacteria degrade pollution and it can be a good biotech business. Put your ideas in order, peolpe. This topic of personal interest for Luisa Falcón and other academics who are looking for benefits for themselves, as can be seen with the patent on cyanobacteria, requested in her name and name of her mentor Valeria Souza in 2012, approved in 2014 and granted by the World Intellectual Property

Organization, just one year after they began to promote their urgency to decree Bacalar as a Ramsar site. This benefit is related to the potential market/environmental services by nitrogen fixation as fertilizer and with carbon fixation. That is bioprospecting – potential biopiracy – even with the modifications to the Science and Technology Law made in 2015 that promoted it. I do not know about you but I would call it "Conflict of interest of stratospheric dimensions" if these actors who promote the delimitation of protection instruments where this type of resources is located, were carrying out bioprospecting / biopiracy.

• A potential payment for environmental services of stromatolites and mangroves for carbon sequestration. To get an idea of what Luisa Falcón meant by this statement, just take a look at the report by Russi, D. and other authors, called: "The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Water and Wetland", published jointly by Ramsar, the European Institute for Environmental Policy, Wetlands international, the Convention on Biological Diversity, IUCN and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research UFZ, a report where the monetary value of the services provided by wetlands was calculated in international dollars, per hectare, per year. Monetary value was placed on four types of services: 1) Provision services, 2) Regulatory services, 3) Habitat services and 4) Cultural services. In that document, the advisory group presents a table of minimum and maximum monetary values that wetlands can generate. If the criteria defined by them are followed, the value of the services generated by wetlands such as the Bacalar lagoon, which falls into the classification of "lakes" would reach a minimum value of $1,779 international dollars per hectare to a maximum of approximately $13,487 international dollars per hectare per year, depending on the services provided, calculated for an area of 5,814 hectares.

But there is also an extensive area of wetlands that includes the sedimentary or floodplains that are located in the center and the estuaries, such as the Estero de Chac, which would reach a minimum value of $ 981 international dollars per hectare per year to a maximum of $ 44,590 international dollars per hectare per year, in the area of sedimentary plains, lake soils, wetlands, flood areas, savannas and petenes, and comprises approximately 8,413.12 ha

and is located in the vicinity of the body of water, but mainly in the central area. You can imagine how many neoliberal environmental actors rubbed their hands and the "love" for protecting and placing under protection (control) as many wetlands as possible, was resucitated The desetendidos are made with the communities who are developing, since the 1980s, various instruments to preserve their territories. These include the certification of impact on environmental services of their good land management practices, such as the international certification of the Forest Stewardship Council, and voluntary markets for carbon capture, managed through the communities and their technical teams. Although these incentive mechanisms were generated at the level of neoliberal environmentalism, of the market to "save nature", communities while resisting, adapting and taking advantage of them. Does not require a Ramsar site to drive payment for Environmental Services.

• That Bacalar functioned as a kind of natural laboratory At the disposal of municipalities, the State, ONGA or public research center, universities and institutions of secondary education, since the delimited areas were neither in the water nor in the ejido polygons or of private properties or possessions, rather in areas of floodable sedimentary plains and the body of water that were subsequently placed as protection zones, but that most are possessions.

• Finally, the proposed area would have the potential benefit, they argued, of being presented as an "area with a sustainable use of natural resources in tourism.” As we will see later neither the Ramsar sites, nor the PNA, nor tourism have been able to guarantee that. A very well orchestrated simulation between government and academics, and an effective way to have reserved territories, full of biodiversity that can later be commoditized, that is, they can be priced as if they were a thing, for the benefit of large capitals.

In addition to these attractive benefits for the actors of the triad, there was the power to control a huge territory. The Ramsar initiative for Bacalar, which began with only 5,893 hectares included the lagoon, the Chac estuary and the wetlands between them and ended up proposing 97,591 hectares (an increase

of 1653% in 3 years), where the Xcalak Reefs National Park, the Manatee Sanctuary, Chetumal Bay, which together made up 71% of the proposal, were incorporated, and the remaining 29% in "unprotected" areas such as Laguna de Bacalar. The engolosinated triad and at no time the legal owners of the adjoining territories, the inhabitants and users of the ecosystems, were included in the negotiations or even consulted. Fortunately, the declaration of a Ramsar site for the Bacalar Lagoon was put on hold in 2014. Perhaps the beneficiaries are reached an agreement, and realized, municipalities and state that everything was going to be under the supervision and monitoring of CONANP, or what unofficially happened, the proposal did not bear fruit. However, at least Luisa Falcón has not relented in her intention; in fact, by April 2021, he made a public statement that points to the promoter group returning to the streets to declare a Ramsar site to the Bacalar Lagoon. Said:

“…The university affirms that various scientific groups warned of the deterioration of the Bacalar Lagoon, at least seven years ago, and it has been requested that it be included among the RAMSAR sites of Mexico -referring to

Wetlands of International Importance- or be declared a Protected Natural Area or Critical Habitat, in order to ensure its conservation… ”

However, these proposals have not prospered and the pursuit of quick gain has been deteriorating in the ecosystem. "There is a misconception with conservation. People believe they won't be able to do anything; however, it is the other way around. If you take care of the resource you can take advantage of it for the rest of your life," she said...” (Gaceta UNAM, 27 de abril de 2021) All the elements of manipulation and myth-making, criminalization of the locals as ignorant and petty, justifying the actions of the triad as something almost heroic. The truth is that who has been benefiting, including obtaining juicy scoring benefits in the National System of Researchers, funds to establish a laboratory of evolutionary ecology, funding of thesis, equipment, not even mentioning a patent in his name for future developments of fertilizers from genetic material of cyanobacteria and media visibility has been the interviewee. I don't know about you, but that's really a "quick win," for just tearing your clothes, changing your discourse depending on who you're talking to, and manipulating your followers with "scientific" data that you modify as locals unmask and refute your signals. 2 billion potential dollars worth the cyanobacterial biotechnology market for fertilizers, such as the patent it holds,

could also be considered profit, perhaps not so fast because it has to be sold, but it is more than any local group would dream of earning with its economic activities added up, not to mention that it is a serious Conflict of Interest, or biopiracy, as I prefer to call it. In Bacalar, Luisa Falcón and her growing group of enthusiastic precursors of ramsar's declaration insisted again and again that Ramsar was NOT like establishing an PNA. The locals, in their intuition and understanding wondered why if declaring a Ramsar site does not mean establishing a Protected Natural Area, this system was under the administration and monitoring of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas? Because, indeed, YES it was something very similar to a Natural Protected Area.

46

APIQROO

On January 2, 2014, while the triad promoting the declaration of the Bacalar Lagoon as a Ramsar site met and planned the incorporation of more actors and more hectares, the Integral Port Administration of Quintana Roo (APIQROO) S.A. de C.V., was made the concession for the administration of the Bacalar Lagoon. A kind of cheat base stealing manouver.

The Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) granted APIQROO the concession for the Integral Port Administration of the ports of Isla Cozumel, Chetumal, Puerto Juárez, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres, in the State of Quintana Roo, since 1994. This gave it authority for the use, exploitation and exploitation of the public domain assets of the Federation and of the works and facilities owned by the Federal Government, as well as for the construction of marinas, terminals and port facilities and the provision of port services in the aforementioned ports. In 2014 an addendum was made where the SCT also granted the administration of the Bacalar Lagoon. Thus the State Government took control of the Lagoon with its company. An API (Integral Port Administration) is a commercial company that is entrusted with the planning, programming, development and other acts that are related to the goods and services of a port through the concession for the use, exploitation and exploitation of the goods and the provision of the respective services. That is, Mexican ports are owned by the Nation (they belong to all Mexicans) but the law allows them to be concessioned for their administration, construction and operation. According to the above, the function of each API is to build and operate the terminals within the port area and to provide port services or to hire private operators.

In Quintana Roo, the Integral Port Administration (API) is under State responsibility. This includes the CHEtumal, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Puerto Morelos, Cancun and Puerto Juarez APIs. It also includes some ports and terminals not concessioned to an API, such as La Aguada, Xcalak, Mahahual, Punta Allen, Puerto Aventuras, Cancun, Holbox and partially the port of Punta Venado. Bacalar, granted in 2014, is part of the Chetumal API. The General Directorate of Ports has among its powers: "to process concessions, permits and authorizations in the ports of Mexico, to authorize or build port, maritime and dredging works; authorize master port development programs," including regulating the operation of APIs and approving their contracts. Since the Bacalar Lagoon was declared a national property, along with Huay Pix, Chac Laguna stream (estuary) and Milagros in 1990, they are goods that fall under the competence of both CONAGUA, SCT and SEMAR.

While all APIs are located in coastal areas, port captaincies are included for coasts and for inland bodies of water, as is the case of the lakes of Chapala, Cuitzeo or Catemaco, among many others. When the concession on the administration of the body of inland water that was the Bacalar Lagoon was given, the rumor arose that this concession was not within the competence of the SCT, since the one who was empowered to manage the water in Mexico was the National Water Commission (CONAGUA). However, reviewing the regulations, CONAGUA's competence refers to the quantity and quality of water from surface and underground water bodies, its concession for direct use of water resources, the infrastructure for its extraction or what refers to wastewater, defined in the National Waters Law, article 9, paragraphs I to the LIV. The Law on Maritime Navigation and Trade, on the other hand, defines bodies of water as general routes of communication through waters or waterways in its article 3, paragraph c), includes: vessels, lakes and navigable inland lagoons. This law establishes federal jurisdiction (Article 4) over them. In this sense, it is the Secretary of Communications and Transport, together with the Secretary of the Navy, within the scope of their own competences, which have the attribution in matters of merchant marine. For navigation and infrastructure related to navigation, it is the responsibility of SCT, now of SEMAR, and therefore of APIQROO.

APIQROO immediately proceeded to adjust charges for the use of docks, boats and other rights, such as the use of an exclusive area for owners and historical owners. Immediately the owners of the properties in the lagoon of Bacalar and Xul Ha were dissatisfied, through the Association Friends of Xul Ha, added to ejido representatives of Pedro Antonio Santos, Buenavista, Aarón Merino, Bacalar, Juan Sarabia, Santa Elena, La Península, Laguna Guerrero and Raudales, they disagreed with the regulations that the APIQROO intended to establish, stating

“ …The Integral Port Administration intends to obtain from the SCT the administration of the sea route from 1 to 100 meters of the lagoon from the shore, "explained the interviewee at the time of exposing that they intend to charge 8 pesos per meter, and that in case an owner can not cover it the parastatal could grant this concession to third parties. He explained that although the 8 pesos per meter seemed low, it would be necessary to calculate according to the extension of the properties, and when the calculation is made by APIQROO representatives, amounts are uPNAyable.…” There was a deep, additional feeling of injustice, which to this day continues to permeate, after years of defending the territory against the abusive proposals of researchers, government agencies and environmental nongovernmental organizations that continued to apply dirty war strategies, consisting of harassment and discrediting of entrepreneurs and local inhabitants, and their criminalization, product of the constant bombardment of partial and manipulated information of the Triad with its proposal of dispossession, now had to deal with a company that had taken over the administration of the body of water and wanted to get money, at point-blank range. To finish complicating it, a few months before the arrival of APIQROO and the collection of rights to use docks, CONAGUA arrived at the properties adjacent to the Lagoon, to carry out measurements to delimit the Federal Lagoon Zone. The inhabitants and historical users of the lagoon include civil engineers and surveyors with extensive experience. They observed and limited the technical teams of CONAGUA about measurement errors that they were incurring, and that caused the federal zone to move more than the 10 meters regulated by law from the shore of the lagoon, in some cases entering up to 300 meters inland. They made the relevant observations in

order to prevent potential conflict when the official measurements and plans were obtained.

“ …We, who live around the lagoon, have placed hopes in tourism development. We agree that there must be rules, but they must be agreed harmoniously between citizens and authority..." Héctor Peña, president of the Friends of Xul Ha Association.

But it was the period of Roberto Borge Angulo's government. Human rights violations, spoils and other crimes committed, covered up by the state government were common, so it was better to reach a good agreement, than to get involved in a bad lawsuit. Somehow many of the users of the Lagoon saw APIQROO as "the lesser of evils".

“…In the end we felt that it was preferable to have APIQROO, than an administrator of a Protected Natural Area ... that it was preferable

APIQROO to have an PNA, and we no longer moved him at least with

APIQROO we could reason and he did not limit or harass us as an PNA would. APIQROO only messes with navigation or docks. We knew that it was not legal what they did with their concession, but we had nothing left but to suck ... at least it wasn't a reservation..." Provider of tourist services. 62 years old. 30 years of working in the lagoon. Finally, the installation of the APIQROO Operations Committee for the Bacalar Lagoon was carried out, in which the service providers and members of the community were given the opportunity to participate and an agreement was reached to let APIQROO operate the nautical aspects and the related in the Bacalar Lagoon. When one carefully reads the chapters of the Regulations of Operations one realizes that a master program of port development is contemplated, aspects of maintenance and in the scope of application of the rules the schedules in which navigation can be carried out are clearly established, aspects such as the types of vessel are clearly established in a very specific and well-defined way, the draft, the type of pier according to its use, communication and rule 23, which corresponds to maximum and minimum speeds within the lagoon and some sites of restriction to navigation, aspects of port services, procedures, maritime maneuvers in the lagoon, safety and hygiene aspects are contemplated and in that aspect even safety is contemplated and in case of damage or accidents the specific procedures.

Related to the triad discourse of the lack of environmental regulation in the lagoon, the APIQROO Regulation counts in chapter 10 and we stop to observe that this chapter includes aspects of environmental control and pollution prevention in which even rule 47 encompasses control of the pollution of the lagoon and access restrictions. The APIQROO Operations Regulation demolishes the triad's discourses that there are no environmental rules that reduce the impact of boats on the body of water. Even Chapter 12 establishes the penalties for non-compliance with the rules and the infractions to which the owners and operators of vessels and port areas in the lagoon are creditors in case of non-compliance. In 2019, APIQROO was unexpectedly an advantage to protect the system against attempts at a decree of the Protected Natural Area. The existence of Chapter 10, became key to the defense against the triad that returned promoting a decree of PNA, arguing that "there were NO instruments of regulation of the activities developed in the Lagoon" as one of its justifications. APIQROO was not only legally empowered to manage the body of water, it was managed with rules and had the power to articulate its regulations with other regulations and the ability to sanction non-compliance with them..

It was very naïve to think that even with all the analysis work and the foundation provided by the community technical groups, it would be possible to contain the ambition of the triad to take control of the Bacalar Lagoon. During the process of reviewing and updating the APIQROO Operating Rules, in 2020, the triad tried to sneak an instrument promoted by the Ministry of the Environment and the Secretary of Tourism of the state of Quintana Roo through a Geoalternative consultancy: PROTUR. Since the only body recognized with a concession to manage the lagoon water body was APIQROO and the attempts to insert the proposal of Ramsar or an PNA by its promoter groups were not being so simple, especially because of the local opposition and its lack of solid arguments, the members of the triad tried to insert their proposals in the opening space that APIQROO gave for the review and update of the Rules of Operation of Laguna de Bacalar, despite the fact that the promoters continued to insist and manage before their followers and the media that there were no instruments that regulated the lagoon, hence the urgency of decreeing an PNA or declaring a Ramsar site and then the PROTUR.