Exploring Incentive-Based Mechanisms for the Conservation of Gray Whale Habitat in Bahía Magdalena, Mexico

Incentive-based conservation mechanisms are widely recognized as being important for achieving successful conservation on private lands, particularly where the local opportunity costs of conservation are significant. A wide variety of these approaches exist; they have been implemented and reviewed in case studies worldwide. This project reviews incentive-based approaches in the context of conserving gray whale habitat in the Bahía Magdalena Almejas Lagoon Complex (BMALC), Baja California Sûr, Mexico. It sheds light on the local social, economic, environmental and institutional conditions related to the ejido and private lands surrounding the BMALC. Fee-simple purchase, easements, leases, payments for land conservation and ecotourism agreements are shown to be potentially effective mechanisms for conserving the private and ejido lands in the BMLAC. A multi-criteria analysis of these mechanisms reveals that there are strengths and weaknesses associated with each of them and that no single mechanism stands out as being optimal for the local situation.