Mexican Enviros Uneasy About New Government

by Pilar Franco

Jorge Gonzalez, president of the PVEM, which formed an alliance with the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), whose candidate Vicente Fox won the July 2 presidential elections, claims to be "the man with experience" to head the secretariat of the environment.

But Alejandro Calvillo, director of the international environmental watchdog Greenpeace Mexico, told IPS that Gonzalez's "knowledge of the environment falls far short."

The secretariat of the environment's director of natural resources, Ivan Azuara, agreed, and said Gonzalez had no experience whatsoever in the area.

The Center of Private Sector Studies for Sustainable Development, meanwhile, said the PVEM lacked environmentalists of stature.

Fox, who said he would govern with the country's "best" men and women, has asked social organizations and professional recruiting companies to suggest possible members for his cabinet.

However, Gonzalez believes that heading the secretariat of the environment would be a "natural" step for him, given his party's support for "the winning presidential candidate, and our focus on ecology in the campaign."

He claims his party contributed 25 percent of the votes taken by Fox, and argues that his 20 years of activity defending the environment speak for themselves.

But naming Gonzalez to that ministerial post "would be a grave mistake for a country with a large part of its territory eroded, polluted river basins and over-exploited aquifers," said Calvillo.

Official statistics indicate that roughly one-sixth of Mexico's territory -- or around 80 million acres -- is eroded, 1.5 million acres of soil fall prey to desertification annually, and 120 of the country's 600 aquifers are over-exploited.

The estimated cost of the environmental deterioration and loss of natural resources caused by pollution and unregulated use is equivalent to 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to secretariat of the environment reports.

Calvillo said the president of the PVEM "is not prepared" to head the new government's policy on natural resources.

But above and beyond the question of the designation of the secretary of the environment, the director of Greenpeace said "we are concerned that environmental matters have not been placed at the top of the president-elect's agenda."

"No one is clear on what role the environment will play" in the government headed by Fox, or on whether "participation by civil society in resolving problems in that area will be fomented, or environmental justice developed," said Calvillo.

Environmentalists at home and abroad are demanding that the development model followed in Mexico take into account the cost of water, air and natural resources when it comes to designing strategies aimed at attaining sustainable development.

Calvillo said that in order to achieve sustainable development, a close look must first be taken at the extent to which the environment has been degraded and natural resources exhausted.

Although Fox "demonstrated sensibility toward some of Mexico's environmental problems, his lack of definition with respect to the question of biosafety is disturbing," said the Greenpeace activist.

In his answers to a questionnaire sent by Greenpeace to the president-elect, Fox did not take a clear stance on the use, handling and sale of genetically modified organisms, said Calvillo.

For years, Greenpeace has led an intense campaign defending what it calls Mexico's "national genetic sovereignty" as the original birthplace of corn in its wide variety of strains.

Environmental groups are fighting to get the secretariat of the environment, created during the current administration of Pres. Ernesto Zedillo, restructured to make it more effective, and to give society a greater say in environmental matters.

"Much progress has been made in terms of creating a regulatory framework, but efficient mechanisms of justice are urgently needed, for which the federal prosecutor's office on protection of the environment, an institution whose labor leaves much to desire, must be granted autonomy," said Calvillo.

"Too much will be at stake" when Fox gets ready to earmark a share of the budget to the secretariat of the environment, and decides who will head the government body.