Cross-Border, Nature Based Market Solutions to Protect Blue Carbon Coastal Ecosystems in the Californias

March 2022

This means that, unless the Mexican Nation has granted Dominium to States or Municipalities, Agencies of the Federal Government, private ownership to individuals, or else has assigned certain areas to agrarian communities or other type of legal forms, all lands within the Mexican territory, including all islands within the Mexican marine areas belong to the Nation. This includes all superficial waters such as wetlands, lagoons, estuaries, creeks and rivers, and importantly, all minerals and natural resources underneath— including carbon stocks. The General Law of National Properties ( Ley General de Bienes Nacionales) differentiates between National lands , which shall always be of public use (e.g. islands, beaches, marshes, wetlands, estuaries, lagoons, rivers), and Federal lands , that also belong to the Nation but are assigned to federal agencies, states, or government agencies for their use and administration. Such lands may or may not be of public use, and their management and custody may be granted either to a federal, state, or municipal authority. It is worth noting that most, if not all, coastal lands and marine areas where blue carbon may be produced belong to the Mexican Nation and are within Federal jurisdiction. This means that the Nation has the Dominium over such areas and therefore, by exercising its jurisdiction, has the capacity to enforce all applicable laws and regulations to oversee and protect such areas. Within such areas are all beaches, including the land and maritime federal zones ( Zona Federal Marítimo Terrestre -ZOFEMAT), which encompass 20 meters inland from the highest tides in all beaches, coastal wetlands, estuaries, inlets, lagoons and marine areas within the Mexican jurisdiction.

Federal laws and regulations that have effects over these areas and on the ecosystems and organisms that may produce blue carbon. The most relevant ones are the General National Waters Law ( Ley General de Aguas Nacionales ), the General Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection Law ( Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y Protección al Ambiente ), the General Sustainable Forestry Development Law ( Ley General de Desarrollo Forestal Sustentable ), the General Climate Change Law ( Ley de General de Cambio Climático ), The General Wildlife Law ( Ley General de Vida Silvestre ), and the protected species norm (NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010). There are also important international treaties that may have an impact on these areas and ecosystems, such as the Paris Agreement, the Ramsar Convention, the CITES Convention, and the Copenhagen Agreement, which have a legal status equivalent to that of the Mexican Constitution. Special attention must be given to the General Climate Change Law, which addresses the efforts and actions that Mexico shall undertake according to the commitments that has acquired under all international treaties and agreed to mitigate climate change. Specifically, the General Climate Change Program drawn from this Law and that was recently enacted, stresses out the urgent need to protect coastal and marine ecosystems to prevent its deforestation with respect to mangroves, seagrass and kelp, and to overall secure blue carbon conservation. This Program acknowledges Natural Protected Areas (Federal, State and Municipal), Voluntary Protected Areas, and Areas of Environmental Services as public policy instruments to protect such ecosystems. Of the aforementioned pertinent laws, regulations and treaties, no doubt, among the most relevant to the blue carbon legal ownership question are the General National Properties Law, which defines the Mexican Nation as the legal owner of all marine and coastal areas and their vegetation, the Federal Seas Law ( Ley Federal del Mar ), which

Besides the Mexican Federal jurisdiction of the 20 meter, high tide zone, there are a number of

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