Peninsula of Dreams is a tourist-real estate megaproject that seeks to be installed 50 kilometers from the city of La Paz, in the Los Planes delegation, in northwestern Mexico. The project threatens to affect biodiversity and Punta Arena beach, and with it, the lifestyle of fishermen in the Agua Amarga community.
The project received environmental authorization from Alfonso Flores, general director of Environmental Impact and Risk of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) in 2016.
The resolution determined 20 years for the preparation and construction of the project, but nine years have passed without formal works beginning and now that there are 11 years left to materialize it, the sponsors have started a campaign to relaunch the project.
Effects on biodiversity
Punta Arena beach lighthouse on the left. Peninsula de los Sueños facilities near Punta Arena. Source: Daniela Reyes
13 kilometers from Punta Arena is the community of Agua Amarga, made up of about 600 people who, although they do not live in front of the sea, have a great connection with it. Most of its inhabitants are engaged in fishing and tourism depending on the season, so their livelihood depends on access to the sea and the biodiversity that exists in it.
Until 10 years ago, fishermen were digging and parking their boats on the shore of Punta Arena beach, but they began to steal their engines. Later, the company Peninsula de los Sueños S.A. de C. V. fenced off the land adjacent to the beach and left only two accesses; surveillance was intensified, control pens were implemented at one of the entrances, and placed “private property” signs warning of 24-hour satellite surveillance of the site.
All this added up, made the fishermen prefer other beaches to ditch their boats, such as Ensenada de Muertos, and to tow them to their homes. However, now they are also concerned that the construction of the project will impact an area of great biodiversity and of importance for fishing and nature tourism activities.
The company Peninsula of Dreams seeks to build a real estate and tourist complex of 7,000 residences; 7,000 hotel rooms; sports and recreational areas such as soccer and golf fields; an inland lake; commercial areas; an airstrip; beach clubs; schools and parks; housing area for workers; three desalination plants and one for wastewater treatment; roads; system for electricity supply; this is 3,519 hectares of construction.
Among everything proposed by the Environmental Impact Statement (MIA), what most concerns fishermen and Orgcas, a non-profit organization that works with coastal communities to protect the sea, is the impact of the marina for docking boats and desalination plants on marine biodiversity.
The project is located in front of the channel that forms Punta Arena and Cerralvo Island. This channel generates strong currents that attract many species, which has been confirmed through the monitoring carried out by Orgcas for four years around Cerralvo Island.
“We found that this is an area with a special diversity because there are several species that are of global importance, especially for marine mammals it is a key area,” said Frida Lara, scientific coordinator at Orgcas.
In the channel between Cerralvo Island and Punta Arena, marine mammals such as blue whales, gray whales, adult and juvenile humpback whales, fin whales, groups of 100 sperm whales, dolphins, pygmy sperm whales and orcas have been recorded. The latter use the area for breeding and to teach their young how to hunt.
“From what I've heard, it sounds like a megaproject that's going to be the end of the only virgin area here and of the marine life. It seems to me that the wealth we live on is going to run out,” said a fisherman from Agua Amarga, who preferred not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
Above: Photograph of a gray dolphin or Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus). Bottom: Mobules. Photographs taken on the channel between Cerralvo Island and Punta Arena. Source: Eliseo Geraldo
The project establishes in the MIA that the total demand for drinking water is 6.53 million gallons per day (MGPD). To obtain it, it will extract 14.5 MGPD of salt water from the sea to purify it. This process would generate 7.98 MGPD of concentrated brine that would be discharged into the sea 300 meters from the coast and more than 20 meters deep, according to the MIA.
“They think desalination plants are the magic solution. The big question is what is going to happen with the management of the brine, and there is no very clear answer as to what they are going to do with it. Another question is that it uses a lot of energy, in a region where electrical energy is limited and depends a lot on fuel oil, which is polluting,” said Lara.
The project involves the construction of a marina with 446 berthing positions on 62.6 hectares that will have a navigation channel connected to the sea. Its construction requires stabilization works with two stone breakwaters, on one of which a boardwalk will be built with a road and a commercial development, explains the MIA.
Its construction and operation is also seen as a potential risk to biodiversity, because dredging will remove the seabed and the installation of breakwaters and breakwaters would impact oceanographic and current dynamics that would entail changes in the coastline and in the dynamics of marine species, according to Orgcas.
Another effect of installing a marina is that it would increase maritime traffic in the area, which would increase noise and affect the behavior of species. Orgcas is about to place 10 hydrophones in the area to get information on the current state of the site and, if the project is done, to have evidence of how noise increased and changed the presence of species.
“Since the construction with dredging, the dynamics of the water in the area will change and in the execution with the transit of yachts as well. Having the monitoring before and after for us is very important and we would have what it is like today in terms of sound in that area and how it could be affected later,” said Lara.
For Orgcas, protecting the ecosystem means caring for all the species associated with the presence of biodiversity and the communities that depend on those species, since, like the fishermen of Agua Amarga, there are at least five other communities (El Sargento, La Ventana, Los Planes, Boca del Álamo and El Cardonal) that have historically depended on the natural wealth of that area.
“It's an iconic site that represents a very important economic spill. Doing things that are not well designed just out of economic interest and sacrificing an ecosystem and the communities that live on it, is not worth it. If we don't take action, if we're not aware of the importance of that place, if it changes, there will be no return,” Lara said.
Resurgence and future of the project
Left: Current photo of the project. Source: Peninsula of Dreams website. Right: Projection of the Los Saguaros Marina Resort project. Source: Masterplan.
Los Saguaros Marina Resort is the name of the fraction of the project with which it began to be relaunched through a video released in July 2024 and which demonstrated that the project is being reactivated.
“This is phase 1 of the tourism development of Peninsula de los Sueños. It's the first of 11 areas. With its 220 hectares, the marina consists of a marina with 332 berths for yachts up to 240 feet, a yacht club with 43 berths, shopping areas and a scientific/exhibition center. Seven luxury hotels with villas and condominiums and two residential complexes,” says the website, where the video is presented, of the company Society of Floating Solution, dedicated to building sustainable floating space solutions based in Singapore.
In addition, in December 2024, they opened new social networks and announced a residence that they have operating on the site.
However, according to the commissioner of Ejido San Vicente de los Planes, the project faces problems with land tenure, which has hampered the progress of the construction of the project.
“The company says that 584 hectares bordering the Gulf of California belong to them. Since 1993, we have been fighting for miles of beach that our ancestors left us and that they received by presidential decree in 1968. Right now we are just depending on an amparo that was presented before the judgment of the Superior Agrarian Court that has not yet been resolved. It's all we have left in the face of this dispossession,” said the commissioner.
For this report, Causa Natura Media contacted the company Peninsula of Dreams through various public media, but as of the time of publication, there has been no response from them.
“I think it's important that they (the company) are aware that we are informed and that we know the level of impact that this will generate. When a habitat is destroyed, there is no way for it to recover, and these projects are going to have an impact that will never be recovered,” said Lara.
For this reason, Lara proposes that the revocation of the environmental authorization for this project be considered because it was probably approved at that time without much awareness of the impact it could have on the future.
“If they try to build it, we will try to defend ourselves and protect the area as far as we can, because it is the sustenance and it has been the sustenance of generations in the past and it is up to us to ensure a future for future generations,” said the fisherman from Agua Amarga.
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