Xcacel Action Letter UPDATE
Life is always changing as long as humans are in command of our world, and that is a fact. But to the lives of the aquatic animals, it appears that we humans are really testing their future existence, in particular, the majestic sea turtles. With the non stopping oil gushing from the deeps of the Gulf of México, it is time that we demand a future, and for more than just for us.
We need to demand the right of life, and this is something that has been pushed aside to much these days to make way for money making, which along the Yucatan’s Riviera Maya is total wall to wall construction with no let up in sight as long and the government has a pen in their SEMARNAT signing hand.
We the public, must stand up and say we have had enough! …and let’s start with a BIG NO!!!! to all hotel constructions on Xcacel turtle nesting beach. Please, WE NEED THE WORLD TO HELP US NOW. Send a letter to the authorities and demand that the building craze in the Mexican Caribbean take a moment to think, let’s keep one beach sacred, and natural, AT LEAST! and Xcacel is the most abundant with nests in all of the Atlantic ocean for turtle counts of both the logger head and green sea turtles.
Elvira Quesada, our ecology Secretary has stated that he will demand from BP any and all funds if and when there are problems with anything dealing with this oil disaster that is unfolding in the Gulf, i.e. the migrating animals to México , the turtles, etc.…..let’s see if he really means what he states…he can show us by protecting Xcacel.
Once again,
Xcacel-Xcacelito, the famous Turtle Sanctuary beach of Mexico, located 100 Km. south of Cancun in the tourist corridor of the Riviera Maya, is in peril again. Xcacel is known as one of the most beautiful white sandy beaches of the Mexican Caribbean coastline. But this is not all that it is known for, for also there are the 7000 turtle nests each year that dot this untouched-to-date beach bluff, along with plants, animals, cenotes, and underground river systems. For this, Xcacel is one of the world’s most important turtle nesting beaches and for the Atlantic Ocean, THE MOST IMPORTANT, nesting beach, representing 20% of all loggerheads and 22% of all green sea turtles, in the Atlantic Ocean born to this beach.
Xcacel beach status is in BIG trouble. In the last 3 weeks, the Mexican government, to be more specific SEMARNAT, under the directions of Juan Elvira Quesada with the help of his signing sidekick, Mauricio Limon, has signed away the lifeblood of this most important beach, yes, for more hotels. A new project Punta Carey (same project that was rejected in 2004 and again in 2006) has just been given permission to build, with their PHASE #1 project, which includes the constructions of 30 apartments, 104 hotel rooms, a club house, beach services, security control access office and roads on the 26 hectares (2 ½ acres = 1 hectare) of beachfront land that will be located on the northern boundary of the Marine Turtle Sanctuary.
Being such a fragile zone, any development, even a low impact project, is not worth jeopardizing such a successful reproduction area for this particular endangered species. It has been proven around the world that building hotels on a turtle nesting site will kill off all future turtle nestings. If the laying sea turtle cannot return to the beach that she was born at, then she will have no choice except to deposit her eggs into the ocean, where they will drown.
We ask for all citizens around the world to help us. The Mexican government will listen if the world speaks. Please copy and paste the following sample letter to the following Mexican politicians today…
Sample letter:
Dear Mexican Government officials,
Please exercise all of the power in your authority to stop the planned constructions on the Sea Turtle sanctuary known as Xcacel-Xcacelito, especially, now after the disaster from the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill on April 20th, 2010. Please decree federal protected status for the turtle sanctuary and bordering regions of Playa Xcacel and Playa Xcacelito in Quintana Roo. We know that the national Commission of natural Protected Areas (CONANP) has completed and published studies in 2005 assigning sanctuary status for these world important 360 hectares of Xcacel and Xcacelito. We are asking for further protection extending from the reef west through the wetland jungle to the paralleling Highway 307. In addition to the endangered marine turtles who return annually solely to this beach to nest, this zone contains endangered mangroves and other endangered plants. This is of critical ecological importance not only to this region but also to Mexico and the international community. It is a RAMSAR protected site # 1351. It is also one of the last public undeveloped beaches for locals and tourists to enjoy.
Sincerely,
Your name_______________
Officials to write to in the Mexican Federal Government
felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx ; juan.elvira@semarnat.gob.mx ; c.secretario@semarnat.gob.mx ; gobernador@qroo.gob.mx; mauricio.limon@semarnat.gob.mx ; mlozano@qroo.gob.mx; cenotes@prodigy.net.mx
Lic. Felipe Calderon
Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Residencia Presidencial de los Pinos
Puerto Central, Primer Piso
Colonial San Miguel Chapultepec
Mexico, DF CP 11850
Tel: 555-522-4117
Email: felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada
Secretaria del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT)
Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources
Lateral de Anillo Periférico Sur 4209, 6 Piso
Fraccionamiento Jardines de la Montana, Delegación Tlalpan
México, DF CP 14210
Tel: 555-628-0602
Fax: 555-628-0643
Email: c.secretario@semarnat.gob.mx
juan.elvira@semarnat.gob.mx Lic. Mauricio Limón AguirreSubsecretario de Gestión para la Protección AmbientalTel: 555-624-3544 o 5Fax: 555-624-3680
Félix González Canto
Gobierno del Estado de Quintana Roo
Governor of the State of Quintana Roo
Email: gobernador@qroo.gob.mx
mlozano@qroo.gob.mx
Submitted by SAVE A.C. www.saverivieramaya.org