International Vaquita Recovery Team Reconvenes
In June 2024 Mexico elected Claudia Sheinbaum as its new President. In the months following her inauguration, Sheinbaum’s administration set out to transform and strengthen fishery management in the Upper Gulf of California, with vaquita conservation as one of its priorities. The International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA), which had met officially only once in the preceding 6-year term of President López Obrador, was called back into action. A brief initial “get reacquainted” meeting, chaired by Dr. Marina Robles, Undersecretary for Environmental Policy and Natural Resources at SEMARNAT and Alternate President of the Upper Gulf Sustainability Group, was convened on-line in April 2025.
The newly reconstituted committee then met on-line in a series of virtual sessions on 3-4 and 12 June. All of the CIRVA-12 sessions were chaired by the CSG’s Regional Coordinator for Mexico and Latin America, Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, who originally recommended the creation of CIRVA to the Government of Mexico, which subsequently announced establishment of the committee in 1997. He has served as its chair ever since.
The first day (3 June) provided CIRVA members with information from the government agencies involved in vaquita conservation but also from NGOs and representatives of the fishing communities. This direct connection between CIRVA and the fishing communities in the Upper Gulf signals that the new administration is taking a stronger and more proactive approach than the previous administration. While fishermen have participated in and contributed to CIRVA meetings in the past, this renewed engagement is a welcome development.
The CIRVA-12 report includes a summary of discussions, recommendations, a map showing proposed adjustments to the boundaries of designated protected areas, and several annexes. A special section of the CSG website is being created to provide convenient access to all 12 CIRVA reports as well as reports of ad hoc CIRVA meetings and related documents.