An analysis of critical areas for biodiversity conservation in the Gulf of California Region

This article summarizes the results of a broad regional consulting process aimed to identify critical areas for biodiversity conservation and to determine the relative level of anthropogenic pressure on natural resources throughout the Gulf of California Region. The methodology was designed to achieve broad consensus by means of a highly participative process that involved the following: (1) the independent, but coordinated, work of experts in task groups to integrate all available information on the key ecological and socioeconomic processes, as well as to generate updated inventories of species; (2) a workshop to identify (based mainly on the information gathered during the first stage) the biologically important areas, and to spatially analyze the anthropogenic pressure on biodiversity, as well as the potentiality for social conflicts; and (3) the integration and spatial analysis of the results by means of a geographical information system. Results show that the areas subject to high anthropogenic pressure coincide with the areas of biological importance. It is expected that the information ensuing from this exercise will help the stakeholders to develop a meaningful conservation portfolio.