Bahia de los Angeles, is the area with highest productivity in the Gulf of California, being the habitat area for whales, dolphins, large colonies of seabirds, whale sharks, sea turtles, invertebrates and fishes with ecological and commercial importance. Was decreed as Biosphere Reserve in 2007 and its Management Plan, which is in the process of being published and is based on a population level approach to manage local fisheries, that operate almost entirely within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) boundaries. However, several experiences with MPAs, in Mexico, have demonstrated that Management Plans have not been sufficient to accomplish the stated objectives to protect natural resources.

This proposal arise from the need to incorporate an Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) approach in the current Management Plan of the “Bahia de los Angeles, Canales de Ballenas y Salsipuedes” (BLA-CBS) Biosphere Reserve.

Designing an EBM proposal, it is also necessary to know the physical and biological system, considering that to achieve the conservation of ecosystems, it is necessary to recognize the goals and interests/objectives of all stakeholders in the use and conservation of resources of the study area. We chose to present the proposals at two fishing communities that directly use the natural resources of BLA-CBS Biosphere Reserve: Bahia de los Angeles, and El Barril, in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

The first part of this proposal will identify and compare the objectives of the actors of the study area, regarding the use or conservation of natural resources. The objectives of conservation, management and use will be organized from the document review as fishing logs, the national charter fishing, the management plan, and fisheries management. These objectives have been incorporated in the development of ecosystem models (Loop Analysis) to generate alternative management scenarios to be presented to stakeholders during a second phase of the project. In this second phase, workshops will be held to explain the EBM concept and to present to the Fishers, Non Governmental Organizations, and Governmental Institutions the management alternatives that emerged during modeling exercises. Additionally, focus groups will be organized to further discuss each sector’s opinions about the proposed alternatives, and to define management scenarios that incorporate the objectives of these sectors. The final proposal will incorporate the main ecological and socio-cultural elements that need to be considered to implement an EBM approach in the study area.