Responding to weeks-long protests against a federal decree to turn the Baja California Sur port of Loreto into a deep-water harbor, President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday issued a new order guaranteeing the protection of the flora and fauna of the Loreto Bay National Park. 

The new presidential decree not only revokes the original decree, but also orders the creation of a Working Group comprising federal officials, as well as activists and academics who have demanded the protection of this area.

Sheinbaum issued the original decree — reclassifying Loreto as a deep-sea cabotage port, thereby opening it to large-scale maritime traffic, including cruise ships — on April 10. Residents and activists immediately began protesting the decision, calling on the president to revoke the decree.

This decree overlooked the fact that the port is located within the Loreto Bay National Park, a federally protected Natural Area. As a signatory to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, Mexico is legally obligated to ensure the protection, conservation and integrity of the park. The protests gained enough traction among the public that Baja California Sur Governor Víctor Manuel Castro agreed to sign onto a change.org petition and formally ask Sheinbaum to revoke the decree.

The new decree indicates official recognition that the Loreto Bay National Park constitutes an ecologically critical area. It acknowledges that the park harbors a diversity of terrestrial and marine ecosystems,  numerous species of flora and fauna, endemic species and species subject to protection.

The waters and islands are home to marine and terrestrial mammals, including the blue whale, humpback whale, sperm whales, dolphins, California sea lion and the fishing bat, considered to be of ecological, environmental and touristic importance to the region.

Article 2 of the new decree calls for the creation of a Working Group within the next 10 days which will be authorized “to update the Management Program of the Protected Natural Area (the Loreto Bay National Park) and address administrative regulations in matters of navigation in the Port of Loreto.”

It also establishes that an official from the Interior Ministry will chair the Working Group, joined by officials from the Navy Ministry, the Environment Ministry, the Tourism Ministry and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas. 

The officials will be joined by “an agent from the state port administrative service who will serve as teechnical secretary, as well as five citizens from the academic, professional, social, scientific and cultural fields recognized for their trajectory in the defense of the Loreto Bay National Park.”

With reports from El Universal, El Porvenir, VanguardiaMX and Hoy BCS