Print PageIs it possible in Latin America to influence legislation and decision-making from the sphere of ecological science? What are the best strategies to put sound ecological science behind public policies? In recent years many researchers have been testing these questions in Mexico, trying to find a meaningful connection between their research and governmental actions. Some of these efforts have been successful, while others have not. In this presentation, we will analyze the conditions and actions that allowed the most successful case studies to achieve their goals.
Results/Conclusions
In particular, we will discuss two important cases. The first one is the set of actions that took place within an intense national debate about the need to protect mangrove forests and coastal lagoons. While coastal developers tried to topple the existing legislation that currently protects mangroves, the environmental movement found a way to bring in very simple terms the concept of ecosystem services to the public media, eventually forcing the Mexican Congress to declare publicly that the mangrove-protecting legislation would be upheld and strengthened.
The second case is the risks brought upon to the Cabo Pulmo Marine Park by the authorization of a large mega-development project on the edge of the Park. Although the project was authorized by the Ministry of the Environment in year 2009, the discussion of scientific data in the media forced the Federal Government to revise the authorization, finally demanding additional information and postponing the initiation of the project.
We will analyze in detail the cooperative work with media and non-governmental organizations that led to the development of these successful actions, and we will discuss the conditions upon which this collaboration should take place, in order to maintain the objectivity of research data and the moral authority that good research has in the eyes of the public.
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