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 he World Heritage Committee of UNESCO unanimously
adopted, at its meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, a report concluding
that Mitsubishi's plan to build the world's largest salt factory
at Laguna San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, Mexico, "could
threaten the conditions of integrity" of the World Heritage
site there. A team of international and Mexican experts, who
visited the site of the proposed 116-square-kilometer project
in August, compiled the report.
 "The
World Heritage Committee's conclusions today confirm our fears
about the Mitsubishi project," said Patricia Martinez of
Pro Esteros, Baja California's largest environmental group, speaking
on behalf of the Coalition for the Defense of Laguna San Ignacio.
"This project would destroy one of our most valuable natural
areas and poison our fisheries, the greatest economic resource
that we have."
According
to Jared Blumenfeld of the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW), "this is the beginning of the end for Mitsubishi's
plans to build an enormous salt factory at Laguna San Ignacio."
"If Mitsubishi
continues with its plan," added Joel Reynolds of the Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC), "it will do so as an environmental
outlaw of global proportions. No company, no matter how wealthy,
can be allowed to destroy a World Heritage site of another country."
Addressing
the Committee, the Canadian delegate, Murray McComb said his
country, "notes with concern the observations of the report
and of the NGO community regarding the potential impacts of the
proposed saltworks at Laguna San Ignacio." The Belgian delegate
seconded the comments and added that, "there is tremendous
public interest in this issue." The delegate referred to
the over 50,000 letters of objection to the saltworks that the
World Heritage Committee has received, and to the nearly one
million letters received by Mitsu-bishi.
The Mexican
government would not allow the World Heritage Committee team
to consider the specific impact of the proposed saltworks project
because a new environmental assessment for the project has yet
to be submitted to the Mexican authorities by the project's developers.
In this context, the team's report could only note that in its
present condition, the sanctuary was not threatened, stating,
"under present circumstances (it) is not in danger."
The team, however, did obtained data from ESSA on the planned
facility and determined that, "such a project could threaten
the conditions of integrity of the World Heritage site."
"The
World Heritage Committee has reached the same conclusion as the
Mexican environmental authorities, which rejected the same proposal
in 1995," said Mark Spalding, an advisor to IFAW and NRDC.
"Namely, that the saltworks would be incompatible with the
sanctuary's conservation objectives."
Besides its
designation as a World Heritage site, Laguna San Ignacio is a
whale sanctuary, a migratory bird refuge, and officially part
of El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve -- the largest reserve in Latin
America. The value of the region's fisheries has recently been
estimated at between $60 million and $120 million. Most important
for gray whales, it is their last undisturbed breeding and calving
lagoon on earth.
Mitsubishi
has proposed to build a 116-square mile salt factory at Laguna
San Ignacio. The facility would generate billions of gallons
per year of toxic salt brine, introduce diesel fuel and spills
into the nearly pristine region, require construction of a 1.25-mile
pier in the midst of the gray whale migration path, and bring
large tankers into the region on a regular basis. Last summer,
34 of the world's most highly honored scientists, including nine
Nobel laureates, urged Mitsubishi to abandon the project, calling
it "an unacceptable risk."
The Coalition
to Save Laguna San Ignacio has made the expert team's full report
available on its web site at www.savebajawhales.com.
The World Heritage report includes a map showing that the proposed
ESSA saltworks facility would disturb 60 percent of the Laguna
San Ignacio section of the Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino. 
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