Cleanup Day in San Isidro Beach May 31, 2009
By Sofía Gómez Vallarta

Photo:Myriam Araceli García Álvarez

Last Sunday, on May 31, Pronatura Veracruz A.C. joined the nationwide Cleanup Campaign launched by the Environmental and Natural Resources Ministry (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, SEMARNAT) to collect garbage in as many sites as possible throughout the country. The cleanup done by Pronatura Veracruz focused on San Isidro Beach, in the Municipality of Actopan, Veracruz. This is the first and only Mexican beach certified under the category of priority use for conservation by SEMARNAT and the Mexican Normalization and Certification Institute (Instituto Mexicano de Normalización y Certificación).

San Isidro Beach is part of the State’s largest coastal dune ecosystem covering an area of approximately 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres). This ecosystem is of great importance for different flora and fauna species. It is a stopover area, to rest and feed, for hundreds of butterflies and dragonflies that migrate thousands of kilometers to the southern hemisphere in autumn and thousands of kilometers back in springtime; the same goes for raptors, migratory and resident birds. During the cleanup we observed: brown pelicans, laughing gulls, least terns, waders, jacanas, egrets, and even a black-collared hawk juvenile There have also been reports of black sea turtle nesting sites (Lepidochelys kempii), an endemic species to the Gulf of Mexico. The region’s dunes are home to endemic plants (plants that are found nowhere else in the World) such as Chamaecrista chamaecristoides, which is of vital importance to the dunes’ stability.

Photo:Myriam Araceli García Álvarez

Our Director Martín Peñaloza, participated in the closing event of the Cleanup Campaign, headed by the State’s Governor Fidel Herrera Beltrán and his wife Rosa Borunda, who presides the State’s National System of the Integral Development of the Family (DIF Veracruz). The Governor recognized Pronatura as a strong ally in the promotion and operation of environmental protection activities, such as the one carried out on May 31.
We collected approximately 221 Kg of litter, with the following composition: 27.7% PET, 31.5% fishing by products, 2.6% aluminium, 36% plastic and 2% glass. Most of the waste comes from the discharge of rivers and streams that flow into the sea; we are therefore aware of the importance of conducting sensibilization efforts in the high and mid watershed areas to reduce the amount of garbage pollution in the beach.

Photo: Sofía Gomez Vallarta	Photo: Miriam Araceli García Álvarez

The official website www.limpiemosnuestromexico.com, reports the cleaning of 4,000 sites in all of Mexico and the collection of around three and a half tons of garbage. We should undoubtedly continue supporting initiatives such as this one and promote a growing conscience to avoid throwing garbage, to separate it and deposit it in sites designed for its management.