In response to Mexico President Felipe Calderon's cancellation on June 15 of the planned $2 billion, 10,000-acre Cabo Cortes resort development complex on the southeastern Baja California peninsula, Spanish developer Hansa Baja Investments said it plans to submit a revised proposal designed to strike a balance between economic development and environmental sustainability.
"The company will submit a new project developed with the advice of qualified environmental advisers, which will be compatible with the conservation and preservation of the area's environment," the company said in a statement.
Calderon, bowing to opposition by environmentalists who said the proposed plan threatened a pristine and protected coral reef that has rebounded dramatically from years of damage, said the developer had failed to demonstrate that the resort development would not harm the rich diversity of the Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park and its reef system.
The marine park was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2005. Since the Cabo Pulmo reserve was created in 1995, the number of fish rose by more than 460% over a 10-year period, according to a 2011 study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
When completed, Cabo Cortes was projected to have nearly as many hotel rooms and condominiums as Cancun, Mexico's largest resort community.
Original development plans called for a complex with up to 15 hotels, condominiums and private residences, totaling more than 30,000 rooms; spas; three golf courses; a 490-slip marina; and a private jetport. The entire complex would be fronted by beaches and edged by mountains, about an hour's drive from Los Cabos Airport and 60 miles northeast of Los Cabos. Planned future phases included retail villages, restaurants and other resort services.
Damage to the reef would have meant the loss of an important site for migrating marine species that have returned to the area, including whale sharks, sea turtles, Pacific manta rays and humpback whales.
"The Cabo Cortes megaproject will not be carried out," Calderon said. "Due to the project's magnitude, we needed absolute certainty that no irreversible damage would be generated, and that absolute certainty … was not generated."
Mexico's Ministry of the Environment first approved the plan in 2008; Calderon's announcement 10 days ago capped years of legal battles over permits that were first granted and then revoked due to environmental concerns.
Environmental groups that campaigned against Cabo Cortes, including Greenpeace Mexico, hailed Calderon's action.
"We consider it a great achievement for all the citizens who voted for the conservation of Cabo Pulmo," said Patricia Arendar, executive director of Greenpeace Mexico. "Canceling Cabo Cortes is a triumph for Mexicans who raised their voices to demand that the president stop favoring the interests of plundering business."