Sea turtle sanctuary on the Oaxacan coast — the only community that turned from turtle slaughter to turtle protection, a cosmetics cooperative, and the most intentional beach in Mexico
Mazunte is a small village on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca state — at the western end of a 1km crescent bay backed by the Sierra de Miahuatlan foothills, 65km east of Puerto Escondido and 12km west of Bahias de Huatulco. The village has one of the most unusual economic histories in Mexico: Mazunte was the centre of Mexico's sea turtle processing industry — the slaughterhouse that killed over 24,000 Olive Ridley sea turtles annually for their meat, eggs, oil, and shell — until the Mexican government banned all commercial sea turtle exploitation in 1990, eliminating the village's economy overnig…
The Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) has nested on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca for millions of years — the beaches of the Oaxacan coast from Mazunte east to Escobilla are the largest Olive Ridley nesting ground in the Pacific. The commercial turtle industry at Mazunte (operated by a state-owned processing plant, PIOSA) was established in the 1960s and ran until the total commercial ban of 1990. The transition from turtle slaughter to turtle protection is now studied in conservation economics as a model for community-based conservation: the same community that depended on killin…