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Goverment and NOGs sign up an agreement
favoring Vaquita
Secretary of the Environment and Natural
Resources, Victor Lichtinger, and National Commissioner for Fisheries
and Aquaculture of SAGARPA, Jeronimo Ramos, formally establish
the National Technical Consulting Subcommittee for the Conservancy
and Management of the Vaquita Marina.
Photo by: Pablo Cervantes.
On February 28, in Chapultepec
Zoo in Mexico City, one hundred NGO's, academicians, scientists,
national and foreign higher education institutions launched a
campaign at the national level to save the Vaquita Marina from
extinction.
This act was attended, among others,
by Victor Lichtinger, Secretary of the Environment and Natural
Resources and Jeronimo Ramos Saenz Pardo, National Commissioner
for Fisheries and Aquaculture of SAGARPA, representing the Secretary
of Agriculture, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food, Javier
Usabiaga Arroyo. Furthermore, the Memorandum of Understanding
for the "Conservancy and Sustainable Development Strategy for
the Recovery of Vaquita Marina (Phocoena sinus), and its Habitat",
was undersigned. During this event, Victor Lichtinger and Jeronimo
Ramos offered their full commitment with the future of this species
Lichtinger assured there will be a
clear and stringent control of fishing activities conducted in
the Vaquita's distribution area and that financing will be requested
from the international community. On the other hand, Ramos stated
the seriousness of over-exploiting Gulf of California species
such as shrimp and totoaba; besides, he proposed actions for new
fishing regulations.
During the event, both authorities
unveiled a sculpture of the Vaquita, which will be seen by the
five million children who visit the Zoo every year. The event
was fully covered by the media; almost 50 journalists from Televisa,
Television Azteca, Channel 40 and Channel 11, as well as from
The Heraldo de Mexico, Reforma, La Jornada, El Sol de Mexico,
Universal and Excelsior newspapers attended it; furthermore, Radio
Red and Radio ABC, among many others, covered the event.
For more information, contact:
Juan Carlos Barrera, Program Leader of the Gulf of California
Program, WWF-Program Mexico.
e-mail: jbarrera@wwfnet.org
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