A proposed megadevelopment at Punta Arena in La Paz municipality would place 7,000 residences, 7,000 hotel rooms, a marina, and three desalination plants directly across a narrow channel from protected Cerralvo Island. The Península de los Sueños project is the most concrete threat facing Baja California Sur protected areas, but it is not the only one. The state’s three oldest conservation zones, all dating to the 1970s, are under simultaneous pressure from climate shifts, unregulated tourism, and development that outpaces enforcement.
Three Protected Zones Established Before BCS Became a State
Baja California Sur has 12 federally designated Protected Natural Areas, known in Spanish as Áreas Naturales Protegidas (ANPs). The first was the Ojo de Liebre Lagoon Complex, created in 1972 as a gray whale breeding sanctuary. At that time, Baja California Sur was still a federal territory; it became a state in 1974.
By 1988, Ojo de Liebre had been folded into the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve. At 2.5 million hectares (about 9,600 square miles), El Vizcaíno is Mexico’s largest wildlife sanctuary. It is home to more than 90 endemic plant species and animals found nowhere else, including the Peninsular Pronghorn, a desert-adapted antelope whose population dropped below 200 in the 1990s. Captive breeding programs have helped triple that count to more than 600 today.
The second ANP, the Cabo San Lucas Flora and Fauna Protection Area, was designated on Nov. 29, 1973. President Luis Echeverría signed the decree after the discovery of underwater sand falls near Land’s End. Jacques Cousteau, who famously called the Sea of Cortés “the world’s aquarium,” encouraged the protection effort. The zone covers 3,996 hectares.
The third ANP, the Islas del Golfo de California, was first established in 1978 and later upgraded in 2000. It spans 374,553 hectares across more than 900 islands, islets, and coastal zones in four Mexican states. Its islands harbor 43 endemic reptile species, including the rattleless rattlesnake of Santa Catalina Island.
Gray Whale Population Dropped From 27,000 to Under 15,000
El Vizcaíno survived a major scare in the 1990s, when the Mitsubishi Corporation proposed a saltworks that would have discharged toxic, hyper-saline brine into the Ojo de Liebre lagoon complex. The Mexican government canceled that project in 2000 after opposition from scientists, locals, and environmental groups.
But a new threat is beyond any single government’s control. Gray whale numbers have fallen from a peak of about 27,000 in 2016 to between 11,700 and 14,450 as of 2025. The cause is not local: a collapse of bottom-dwelling amphipods in the whales’ Arctic summer feeding grounds has led to mass malnourishment. NOAA, the U.S. oceanic and atmospheric agency, has documented multiple Unusual Mortality Events linked to starvation. The Ojo de Liebre breeding grounds remain intact, but fewer whales are arriving each winter season.
Whale-watching season in the lagoon complex runs from January through March. Tour operators based in Guerrero Negro and San Ignacio depend on healthy whale counts. Declining arrivals are already reshaping that local economy.
Cabo San Lucas ANP Has No Management Plan After 53 Years
At the southern tip of the peninsula, the Cabo San Lucas ANP faces a different problem: near-total regulatory absence. Fifty-three years after its creation, the zone still lacks a formal management plan. The only enforceable rule is a ban on fishing within its boundaries.
Nearly four million people visit Los Cabos each year. Many of them boat, dive, snorkel, and kayak around Land’s End, which accounts for roughly 5% of the ANP’s total area. Semarnat, Mexico’s environmental ministry, inventoried 839 native species in the zone in 2010. At least 94 of those species are now at risk: 12 endangered, 24 threatened, and 58 under special protection.
Benito Bermúdez Almada, regional director of CONANP (Mexico’s national commission overseeing protected areas), told the newspaper El Sudcaliforniano that Cabo San Lucas serves as “the best alert site for the behavior of oceanographic conditions in northwestern Mexico.” Still, he acknowledged the tension between commerce and conservation in a destination that generates billions in tourism revenue.
In 2023, CONANP proposed expanding the Cabo San Lucas ANP to cover vulnerable shallow reefs and underwater sand falls, and to cap boat traffic. That proposal remains stalled. No timeline for adoption has been announced.
Península de los Sueños Would Pump 8 Million Gallons of Brine Daily
The most immediate development threat sits 90 minutes north of Cabo, near the La Ventana community east of La Paz. The Península de los Sueños megaproject would build 7,000 residences, 7,000 hotel rooms, a 446-berth marina, and an airstrip at Punta Arena. Directly across the channel lies Cerralvo Island (also called Isla Jacques Cousteau), one of the core islands protected under the Islas del Golfo de California ANP.
Three proposed desalination plants would discharge roughly 7.98 million gallons of concentrated salt brine into the Sea of Cortés every day. “They think desalination plants are the magic solution,” said Frida Lara, scientific coordinator at Orgcas, a women-led marine conservation nonprofit in La Paz. “The big question is what is going to happen with the management of the brine, and there is no very clear answer.” Lara also noted that desalination requires enormous energy in a region that still depends heavily on fuel oil for electricity generation.
Cerralvo Island is a popular dive and kayak destination, reachable by panga from La Ventana in about 30 minutes. The channel between the island and the mainland supports mobula ray aggregations, hammerhead sharks, and whale shark sightings from October through February. Heavy marina traffic, noise pollution, and daily brine discharge could alter that ecosystem permanently.
A Change.org petition opposing the project has gathered more than 24,000 signatures. No final environmental permit has been issued. The project’s status with Semarnat remains unclear, and CONANP has not publicly stated whether the development is compatible with the Islas del Golfo protections. This story was first reported by Mexico News Daily.