Wildcoast (stylized WILDCOAST) is an international non-profit environmental organization that conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife. Headquartered in Del Mar, California, Wildcoast established a Mexican division in 2007, Costasalvaje A.C. in Ensenada to manage its conservation programs in Latin America. Charity Navigator awarded Wildcoast its four-star charity ranking. The organization received the Excellence in Organizational Development Award from Nonprofit Management Solutions in 2006. It also received the San Diego Earthworks E.A.R.T.H. Award in 2007. In 2008, Wildcoast received the Green Wave Award from the Surfer's Path Magazine.
Campaigns Demanding an end to ocean pollution - Wildcoast's Clean Water Now! page Protecting sharks from exploitation - Wildcoast's Sharks... Killing Machines or Victims? page Defending the sea from toxic waste and overfishing - Wildcoast's Defiende el Mar page Saving endangered sea turtles - Wildcoast's Sea Turtles page Preserving the beautiful San Ignacio Lagoon - Wildcoast's Laguna San Ignacio page
Conservation programs
Wildlands conservation One of Wildcoast's primary missions is to preserve spectacular, undeveloped coastal areas throughout the peninsula of Baja California such as Bahía de los Ángeles, Bahía Concepción, Bahía Magdalena, Laguna San Ignacio and the North Central Pacific Coast. These are some of the most ecologically important coastal areas remaining on the planet and are teeming with wildlife including endangered species of sea turtles, whales and migratory birds. Inhabited by people who make their living from fishing, ranching, and ecotourism, these locations are threatened by megaresort construction, land speculation, energy development, and mining projects. Working in partnership with local community-based organizations and landowners, Wildcoast provides support for land conservation projects such as easements, private reserves, concessions, and sustainable development projects. Many of Wildcoast conservation projects are carried out with members of ejidos, or communal agrarian cooperatives and private landowners to help them hold on to their ancestral land and receive financial incentives to protect the land from development. Wildcoast made history by working with the Laguna San Ignacio Conservation Alliance in the brokering of a deal to protect the entire 140,000-acre (570 km2) territory of the Ejido Luis Echeverria in San Ignacio Lagoon. The legally binding deal is being praised as a model for conserving both the environment and the local way of life. San Ignacio is the world’s last undeveloped gray whale lagoon and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along the North Central Coast of Baja California Wildcoast has protected more than 14 miles (23 km) of coastline through conservation easements. In addition, Wildcoast worked to halt a series of megaresort and marina projects slated for this region in Baja California that would have obliterated world-class coastal biodiversity sites..
Wildlife conservation The focus of the Wildlife Conservation Program is to protect endangered marine species and their habitats. In 2006, Wildcoast carried out a wildly successful campaign "Defiende el Mar" (Defend the Sea) to support the creation of marine protected areas along the central coast of California and Mexico’s Gulf of California. The campaign took place at the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany involving partnerships with Mexican soccer stars, Jorge Campos and "Kikin" Fonseca, to promote marine protected areas. The campaign resulted in the establishment of a 1,200,000-acre (4,900 km2) marine reserve in Bahía de los Ángeles in the Sea of Cortez and a network of marine reserves near the coast of Monterey and Santa Cruz in California. Jorge Campos, one of the world’s greatest goalies, received the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Environmental Hero award for his work with Wildcoast to defend the ocean. From 2007-2008 the Wildcoast pro-MPA campaign featured Mexican wrestler El Hijo del Santo who has ardently campaigned for new marine reserves in California and marine conservation in Mexico. The Wildcoast "Don’t Eat Sea Turtle" campaign, an ongoing effort to reduce the demand for sea turtle eggs and meat throughout Mexico and Latin America received worldwide attention with its celebrity spokespeople, model Dorismar, and musicians Maná and Los Tigres del Norte. The campaign featured public service announcements, posters, post cards, advertisements on bus stops, and a conference and press event in Acapulco – a center for the black market trade in sea turtle eggs. Randy Olson of Shifting Baselines called the campaign the "best ocean campaign in human history". Wildcoast has launched a new initiative to protect sharks. This campaign resulted in the cessation of a shark massacre in the Mexican state of Guerrero after an American surfer was killed in a shark attack in May 2008. Recently, Wildcoast has also focused on the establishment of Marine Protected Areas in California. A science-based network of Marine Protected Areas is critical to ensure the survival of marine wildlife into the future as well as maintaining Southern California’s greatest resource.
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