At the height of the paradox, Mexico maintains in the graveyard of unresolved files, the first diplomatic triumph, which allows it to register the first aquaculture farm, Earth Ocean Farms (EOF), with authorization to carry out international trade in the meat of cultivated totoaba.
It is not anything. After four years of discussion within the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in a vote divided 9 to 6, Mexico obtained this important recognition.
Cites, it must be remembered, is an international agreement that aims to protect the survival of wild species by ensuring that international trade does not represent a threat.
Appendix 1 includes endangered species, such as the totoaba, and its international trade is only allowed when it is verifiable that it was bred in captivity, without affecting wild populations and with excellent traceability to avoid species trafficking.
The company that received authorization from Cites is Earth Ocean Farms, run by Pablo Konietzko, in La Paz, Baja California Sur.
Such a diplomatic feat in the context of the complicated Totoaba business in the world, was achieved with a divided vote of 9 in favor and 6 against.
The international context has been very difficult due to the illegal international trade in Totoaba and the repercussions it has on the capture of the associated vaquita.
The paradoxical thing is that having the authorization of Cites in Mexico, the legislative and regulatory changes necessary for EOF, continues to sleep the dream of the just.
They simply and simply have not been done.
Now, one year later, it seems that the Mexican legal framework is already on the way to standardize the international context.
In the Chamber of Deputies, it is said that the president of the Economic Commission, the deputy Jorge Inzunza (PAN) will be presenting an initiative to modify the Law of General Taxes for Import and Export, which will finally authorize the export of farmed totoaba meat.
Opening the international market to the export of cultivated totoaba would generate several benefits:
An endemic natural resource of the country is promoted and benefits the BCS region with the value chains and the economic spillover that this product would generate.
The conservation of the species would be supported, since the cultivation of totoaba allows traceability and scientific tracking, through which the fish raised through aquaculture are identified.
The nutritional benefits of this fish would be made known to the culinary world.
Despite this, the country continues to face complex scenarios: the vaquita and the totoaba share the ecosystem of the Upper Gulf of California, which is why it is somehow associated with the fact that the vaquita is in danger of extinction as a result of the illegal fishing of the totoaba by alleged members of what is known in the area as “the Dragon and Totoaba cartel.”
Although in recent weeks, the country was on the verge of seeing all its export of goods that CITES classifies as species that require special export permits, such as crocodile leather, mahogany or diversity of cacti and plants, among thousands of others, prohibited. products, it was not until Mexico submitted a proper Action Plan to protect the totoaba from poaching and the vaquita that Cites lifted the ban.
We will see if the corresponding laws are modified or if they continue among the unresolved files.
glimpses
It did not go unnoticed that at the recent National Oil Convention of the Mexican Association of Hydrocarbon Companies (AMEXHI), a good number of leaders of companies in the sector are women. In addition to the secretary Rocío Nahle herself, leaders such as Evelyn Vilchez, from Chevron; Tania Ortiz, from Sempra Infraestructura, and Angelica Ruíz from BP, among other prominent women. It is striking that a sector traditionally identified with “oil barons” is modernizing and advancing in terms of gender.
