MEXICO, Guadalupe Island, Baja California Pacific - January 2010
Sea water desalination system in exchange for a 1,235-acre marine reserve for a duration of 10 years *
Guadalupe Island, with a total land area of 80,000 acres, is one of the most remote islands of Mexico. The island’s only community is mostly fishermen and their families who have been using the island for decades, fishing lobster and diving abalone. Guadalupe Island has one of the best preserved marine environments of Mexico. Since the decree in 2007 of the “Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve”, the management and regulated protection of its natural resources is under the federal authority of the Natural Protected Areas Commission. Guadalupe Island is one of the best examples in the world of an ongoing island ecosystem recovery where different entities (governmental and nonprofit) are participating. A water desalination plant is the local community's most urgent need. A desalinization system will be purchased with the help of Seacology in exchange for the creation and protection of a 1,235-acre marine reserve for a period of 10 years, where fishing, extraction of resources, damage to the sea floor, contamination or any other kind of damage is forbidden. The desalination system will be able to supply as much as 3,000 gallons per day. The water supply could also support reforestation and restoration projects, particularly in the remaining patches of endemic forest. In 2000 and 2002, Seacology funded projects to construct and maintain fences to keep invasive goats out of the most sensitive areas containing endemic plant species. Goats have since been eradicated from the island.
UPDATE May 2010 - As of May 2010 field representative Jose Angel Sanchez-Pacheco reports that the process to be able to install and operate the desalination system on the island needs permits and a study for Environmental Impact Assessment because it is a Federal Natural Protected Area. The cooperative of Guadalupe (recipients and beneficiaries with the system) applied for a grant from the State of Baja California Fisheries Department to pay for the study and get the permits. Currently, the study is in progress with the support of the NPA managers and it will be evaluated by authorities. Additionally, the company owner who will provide, install, and train the use and maintenance of the system was able to find a system that will be able to produce double the water capacity for the same price.
UPDATE September 2010 - As of September 2010 field representative Jose Angel Sanchez-Pacheco reports that the Guadalupe Island cooperative has received the environmental impact assessment to install and operate the plant and expect to have the results of the final analyses soon. Shortly after that they will purchase the plant and install it.
UPDATE June 2011 - The desalination plant was pre-assembled in early April 2011, and was sent to the island on April 15 (on a Navy boat). The building that will hold the plant is ready. The technicians from the desalination company were scheduled to arrive on the island to assemble the plant and test its operation, and to train locals on its maintenance during late April/early May.
*Support for asterisked projects is provided fully or in part by: 
