Protected areas and coastal and ocean management in México

No explicit “integrated coastal and ocean management” policy or program has been formally instituted to manage coastal and marine issues in México. Nevertheless two existing environmental policy tools: ecological zoning programs and coastal and marine protected areas, which have incorporated interagency and multi-stakeholder participation within their design, are currently being used in lieu of such strategy. Coastal and marine protected areas in México are the result of independent initiatives taken over the last 75 years and as a group cannot be characterized as the result of a systematic approach. Nevertheless México's 55 coastal and marine protected areas currently with a valid legal decree, occupy 11,791,824 ha which represents 69% of Mexico's total protected area surface. Only 46% of these include marine ecosystems with a total of 3,577,527 ha with the remaining 8,216,194 ha consisting of coastal ecosystems. (See In press update.)