Facing the Facts on Mexico’s Vaquita Protection Failures

In September, AWI—on behalf of a coalition that includes the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Investigation Agency—provided a “detailed submission” to the Commission on Environmental Cooperation (CEC) regarding Mexico’s failure to protect the vaquita porpoise. The CEC, founded in 1994 via a side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), “facilitates effective cooperation and public participation to conserve, protect and enhance the North American environment in support of sustainable development.”

In August 2021, the coalition filed a “submission on enforcement matters” (SEM), a formal request to develop a factual record of how Mexico is violating its obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (which replaced NAFTA in 2020) by failing to enforce its own fishing and wildlife trade laws. This SEM resulted in a unanimous July 2024 resolution by the CEC Council (the CEC’s governing body) instructing the secretariat to develop the factual record—intended to establish the facts relevant to the SEM’s assertion, including Mexico’s legal obligations and actions taken to fulfill such obligations.

In support of this record, the detailed submission documents Mexico’s failure to enforce its laws, including Articles 55 and 56 of the 1975 General Wildlife Act, which banned totoaba fishing, and a 2020 regulation prohibiting gillnet use within vaquita habitat in the Upper Gulf of California. Mexico has reduced illegal fishing in a “zero tolerance area” of core vaquita habitat but has otherwise allowed illegal totoaba fishing to continue, pushing the species to the brink of extinction. A draft factual record from the secretariat is expected in early 2025.

Program Terms: Marine Wildlife

AWI Quarterly Terms: Feature Article, Government/Legal