A quick drive down the superhighway that stretches along Mexico’s 110-kilometer Corredor Turistico, from Cancun to Tulum, reveals numerous ecoparks tucked along the shoreline. Billboards advertising “ecoadventure tours” and “nature’s sacred paradise” are impossible to ignore against the whacked-back jungle. Despite this nature-bargain packaging, some of these resorts pose a threat to local wildlife and resources. For example, new construction eats up turtle nesting territory on the beaches and brings light pollution to the nighttime coast.
Akumal, a Truer Ecoresort
In the drowsy resort town of Akumal, located 100 kilometers south of Cancun, the non-profit Centro Ecologico de Akumal was established in 1993 with the goal of using scientific knowledge to resolve development disputes among local businesses. Now many enterprises along the entire coast, as well as Akumal dive shops, restaurants and inns, support the Centro.
Saving Sea Turtles is a Popular Cause
Saving the sea turtles that return to resort beaches each year to lay their eggs from May through September is the Centro’s most popular program among locals and tourists alike, and with good reason. Nightly "Turtle Walks," available by reservation only, give visitors the very real possibility of witnessing magnificent mother turtles digging a nest or laying dozens of golf-ball sized eggs in the darkness. Seasonal volunteers may even have the luck of watching hatchlings emerge from the sand to scramble down the beach into the breakers.
Centro Ecologico literature points out that every species of sea turtle is endangered, so these graceful reptiles are precious wherever they’re found. And sea turtles abound along the Yucatan coast, where loggerheads and greens come to nest, and young hawksbills and leatherbacks shelter in the warm waters to feed and mature.
Built for endurance, they remain in the water for life, swimming thousands of miles until they are ready to breed. At maturity, Mexican-born female greens and loggerheads return to lay eggs at the same Yucatan beaches where they were hatched.
Beaches Attract People as Well as Turtles
Four beaches of the Mayan Riviera – Akumal, Aventuras, Chemuyil, and Xcacel – are key to nesting sea turtles, and they are all undergoing some degree of development. Xcacel (pronounced ISH-ka-sell) is the most important of these. The sandy slopes here support a nesting population that is critical to the genetic diversity and long-term survival of Caribbean sea turtles.
In 2002, environmentalists won a two-year battle to protect Xcacel from a 450-room hotel development. Now, according to a January 27, 2009 article, “Xcacel, Punta Carey, and Grupo Posadas Update” posted online by the Mangrove Action Project, a different company is again working toward construction of another large-scale resort with the unflattering title of Fiesta Americana. Witnesses report that mangroves have been filled in and endangered chit palms cut down.
Putting the Eco Back into Ecotourism
Development eliminates habitat, creates water pollution, and also brings lights, which lure hatchling turtles away from the phosphorescent glow of the ocean. Some developments have substituted red or green night lights invisible to the hatchlings as an answer to light pollution. The Centro’s educational programs, staffed by volunteers, educate tourists about the needs of sea turtles and the proper behavior to protect them: everything from avoiding marked nests to boycotting turtle products (there is a thriving black market supplied by poachers) to a strict etiquette of no littering.
Visitors to the Yucatan can help put the eco back into ecotourism by staying at Akumal, taking a Turtle Walk, becoming a member of the Centro Ecologico, adopting a turtle, and respecting lights-out policies. Green lights and dark beaches are a small price to pay for saving sea turtles.
Source
Centro Ecologico de Akumal Site
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