When David Borbón first arrived in the village of El Delgadito in 1980, it was a paradise with seemingly unlimited natural resources. He continued to return seasonally to fish for lobster, sea bass and clams.

Located on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur in Mexico, El Delgadito juts out into the mouth of the San Ignacio Lagoon, one of the winter sanctuaries of the eastern Pacific gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus). It sits within the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, a vast semiarid ecosystem with wetlands, marshes and mangroves.

In the early 2000s, Borbón settled there permanently with his wife, Ana María Peralta. But a series of severe weather fronts, bringing heavy rain and powerful winds, combined with overfishing, eroded the shoreline and destroyed the area’s mangrove ecosystems. No longer did it look like the paradise he once knew.

Between 1990 and 2005, the San Ignacio Lagoon experienced a 2,554-hectare (6,311-acre) reduction in mangrove coverage as a result of atmospheric processes, such as hurricanes or low precipitation, as well as human activities, leading to an annual deforestation rate of 3.83%. Without mangroves, fish and shellfish are deprived of food, shelter and protection. Residents of El Delgadito, who depend on fishing to survive, were greatly affected by their decline.

“The profits from fisheries no longer yielded those figures from the ‘70s,” Borbón told Mongabay over a phone call. “It was not profitable to continue overexploiting marine species that were already very, very depleted.”

But Borbón had an idea. Not trained in any way in a science, he became so obsessed with mangroves as a way to buffer against hurricanes and restore the ecosystem that he started experimenting through trial and error how to reforest them. He came up with his own specific methods, which are difficult to replicate in other climates, he said. He had to sit down with the mangroves for hours and study how to replicate their own natural patterns.

After figuring out the method with the support of Peralta and their daughter, Ana María Borbón Murillo, he began a mangrove reforestation project, which today has been critical to El Vizcaíno, one of Mexico’s largest protected areas. In 2018, one study published in Nature said the family’s method of planting red mangroves’ propagules under natural conditions successfully replanted 30,000 new plants in three years.

So far, the project has planted more than 1.8 million mangroves that have a 92-94% survival rate, Borbón estimated.

“The project carried out by Mr. David Borbón has contributed as a measure of mitigation and adaptation to climate change,” Marco Antonio Gonzalez Viscarra, director of the El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, told Mongabay over email.

El Vizcaíno, an area that has been historically susceptible to hurricanes, is home to a diverse range of species, including the desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni), northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) and more than 180 bird species.

Although the El Vizcaíno Reserve has contributed in part to the subsidy programs for the reforestation of the mangroves in the fishing community of El Delgadito, most of the work has been done by the community group. “Thanks to the effort, it was possible to reforest more than 63 hectares (155 acres), with positive results,” Gonzalez Viscarra said.

Mermaids in the mangroves

Borbón’s relationship with mangroves has changed significantly since he was a young man fishing off the coast of El Delgadito. Back then, mangroves were seen as a nuisance. Roots and branches spread out at awkward angles ,and their dense latticework made it difficult for fishers to weave through shallow waters.

On a visit to El Delgadito in 2008, Borbón’s daughter shared information that completely changed his outlook, as well as the entire trajectory of his life. She explained how mangroves can prevent coastal erosion, store carbon and provide a nursery for all kinds of fish and crustacean species. The trees, which grow in dense thickets of forests along tidal estuaries, provide the ocean with large volumes of nutrients, stabilize soil with their roots and help improve water quality by filtering and trapping sediments.

“That’s where the concern was born,” Borbón explained. Together with Peralta, they began to experiment with various mangrove reforestation methods. Neither of them had any experience. “I have no schooling,” he explained. “I was only a fisherman.” But after years of fishing in those waters and having witnessed firsthand the destruction of the coast, they were determined to fix it.

At first, they created a mangrove tree nursery in greenhouses, which is common in other regions of Mexico, such as in Veracruz and in the south of Sinaloa. In these areas, once the tree reaches 80-90 centimeters (31-35 inches), they are transplanted into mudflats along the ocean’s edge.

“Since I didn’t have any experience, I decided to replicate those techniques,” he said. “In terms of plant production, they had excellent results. But, as we are in a semidesert area, the plants rarely survived the transplantation process.”

Mangroves are typically found in tropical and subtropical coastal areas where they thrive in hot conditions. El Delgadito is home to the northernmost trees in the Americas. There are four different species in Mexico, including red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), white mangroves (Laguncularia racemosa), black mangroves (Avicennia germinans) and sweet mangroves (Maytenus phyllanthoides).

The trees in El Delgadito, which are of the red and white varieties, grow in unusually cold conditions and are shorter than their tropical counterparts. Given their uniqueness, Borbón realized he had to take classes from nature itself.

“Many scientists ask me if I’m a magician,” he said. “No, I am not. I only live among the mangroves, observe their natural behaviors and try to replicate what they do. If you try to modify that, it will not work.”

Alfredo Quarto, program and policy director and co-founder of the Mangrove Action Project, told Mongabay over email that “any restoration approach, in order to be successful, must apply certain basic principles, but these are applied best if done on a site-specific basis.” He added that “each site has different characteristics that are important to note and adjust your approach accordingly.”

While scientists Mongabay spoke to haven’t called Borbón’s techniques magical, the director of the protected area credits the community group’s work for largely facilitating the recovery of the mangrove ecosystem.

Borbón’s method, which involves directly sowing seeds in the wild, is a product of his obsession with mangroves and the environment they live in. “I became in tune with the mangroves. My wife has sometimes had to come to rescue me at 10 p.m. She asks me if I have a girlfriend there, little mermaids in the mangroves.”

Borbón’s work team collects seeds directly from parent trees, which they access by boat or raft. The seeds of red mangroves, which can number 120-160 per tree, can usually be collected in October, and the white mangroves, which can produce up to 15,000 seeds per tree, in December. The collection window ends around March.

After the best seeds are collected, they are left in direct sun to germinate and placed in a combination of salt and freshwater. Borbón used to plant the seeds on islets that form naturally within the estuary. However, after losing many trees to storm surges, Borbón learned that the best places to plant the seeds are intertidal zones where they are protected from the strong currents.

Borbón’s planting calendar and sowing method would be hard to replicate elsewhere because it is based on the natural behavior of the mangroves of El Delgadito.

“You have to see how they behave, what the temperatures are, the currents, the flora and fauna that accompanies them, the texture or the terrain, the substrate,” he explained. “That is what has given me excellent results.”

Saved by the mangroves

For two consecutive years, in 2022 and 2023, El Delgadito was hit by large and powerful hurricanes, such as Hurricane Kay and Hurricane Hilary, which both caused significant damage to the Pacific coast. “It was terrible,” Borbón said. “For 19 days we were completely cut off. Our roads were impacted and we could only reach other communities where there were doctors by boat.”

According to the State Risk Atlas of Baja California Sur, an instrument created to promote comprehensive risk management and civil protection, El Delgadito is classified as a “very high risk” area for tropical cyclones and storm surges.

As a result of climate change, global climate models predict hurricanes will likely lead to more intense rainfall and increased coastal flooding from storm surges made more severe by rising seas. The frequency of hurricanes may not change, but those that come will likely be more intense, the models say.

Cristina Gonzalez Rubio Sanvicente, the director of climate change for the government of Baja California Sur, told Mongabay over WhatsApp messages that the impact of the 2022 and 2023 hurricanes was huge. Many houses and other buildings were destroyed.

Since then, there has been a push to pass a Climate Change Law, which would promote and increase Baja California Sur’s resilience to the effects of climate change. The protection of coastal ecosystems, which includes mangroves, is mentioned in the soon-to-be-approved law, she said.

Studies have shown that during a hurricane, mangroves can help protect coastal areas from storm winds, strong waves and erosion. Quarto told Mongabay that “a healthy mangrove forest can significantly reduce the height and strength of waves and thus save lives and reduce property damage along otherwise vulnerable coasts.”

After a hurricane impact specialist visited El Delgadito in 2023, they told Borbón that if it weren’t for the mangroves, the fishing village would no longer exist. Not a single house would have survived the tropical storms.

Borbón lost 47 hectares (116 acres) of mangroves because of the hurricane. The storm surge deepened the water channels and formed caves near the root system of the mangroves, eventually leading to their collapse.

Climate change has also impacted the temperature of the water and, in some cases, decreased the survival rate of mangroves to below 80%, Borbón said. In response, he has had to change his planting calendar. “We have to work with the agenda nature sets for us.”

Aside from local food security and hurricane protection, the mangroves of El Delgadito have also provided some community members with a source of employment. Today, Borbón and his wife work with a team of about 14 committed individuals, who are paid to help with sowing and general care. He has also trained more than one hundred others.

The group has often struggled to access financial resources to continue their work and expand the reforestation project. Due to complex bureaucratic processes, funding has to pass through intermediaries, such as NGOs, consultancies and development banks, which take cuts of everything from administrative costs to consultant salaries. To address this issue, the community group is setting up its own foundation, the Baja California Sur Foundation for Wetland Conservation and Restoration (Fundacion Sudcaliforniana para la Conservacion y Restauracion de Humedales), which will allow them to receive money directly.

“I think the most necessary thing now is to not stop,” he said. “We are running against the clock on the issue of climate change.”

Banner image: Members of the El Delgadito fishing community planting red mangroves. Image courtesy of David Borbón.

Dig, dump, repeat, then watch the forest grow: Q&A with mangrove restorer Keila Vazquez

Citations:

Cota Lucero, T. C., Lopez-Calderon, J., Angel Ojeda-Ruiz, M., & Riosmena-Rodriguez, R. (2017). Historical trends of mangrove forest and two coastal lagoons of the Pacific, Baja California Sur. Recovered from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321251668_HISTORICAL_TRENDS_OF_MANGROVE_FOREST_AT_TWO_COASTAL_LAGOONS_OF_THE_PACIFIC_BAJA_CALIFORNIA_SUR

Arceo-Carranza, D., Hernández Mendoza, L. C., Teutli-Hernández, C., Herrera-Silveira, J. A., Caballero Vásquez, J. A., & Chiappa-Carrara, X. (2024). Mangrove ecosystems as fundamental habitats for fish from the Mexican Caribbean: An evaluation between a conserved and restoration zone. Regional Studies in Marine Science, 77: 103650. doi:10.1016/j.rsma.2024.103650

Marín-Monroy, E. A., Hernández-Trejo, V., Romero-Vadillo, E., & Ivanova-Boncheva, A. (2020). Vulnerability and risk factors due to tropical cyclones in coastal cities of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Climate, 8(12), 144. doi:10.3390/cli8120144

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