WiLDCOAST-COSTASALVAjE

WiLDCOAST was founded in 2000 in order to protect some of the most ecologically important coastal wildlands, islands and marine areas that remain in California and Baja California. They are home to a variety of endangered marine animals, such as the Eastern Pacific green and loggerhead sea turtles and the last undeveloped gray whale calving site on earth.

WiLDCOAST conservation activities have historically focused on four sites: Bahía de los Angeles, Laguna San Ignacio, Bahía Concepción and the U.S.-Mexico Border coast. Each of these sites contains globally significant coastal and marine ecosystems (e.g. salt marsh wetlands, seagrass beds, coastal dunes, reefs, and mangroves), as well as internationally migrating and threatened marine species (e.g. five species of sea turtles, whale sharks, sea birds and marine mammals).

Since its inception, WiLDCOAST has successfully protected more than one million acres of coastal wildlands and halted the development plans of illegal mega-resorts throughout the Baja California Peninsula and the Sea of Cortez. Through its innovative conservation campaigns, Wildcoast has brought critical attention to pressing environmental issues in the Californias.

WiLDCOAST programs include:
* Clean Water Now! - The rally cry for thousands of coastal residents in south San Diego County and Tijuana who are demanding an end to the ocean pollution threatening their way of life. It is time for our elected officials and policy makers to support a real comprehensive solution to this pollution.
* Laguna San Ignacio – A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Laguna San Ignacio is home to sea turtles, peregrine falcons, ospreys, and hundreds of thousands of migratory waterfowls and shorebirds, and is the last undeveloped gray whale birthing lagoon on the planet. Laguna San Ignacio is part of a 248-mile-coastline wetland complex that includes intertidal mudflats, salt flats, sandy beaches, and mangroves. This wetland complex is a global treasure and one of the world’s most biologically significant coastal sites.
* Sea Turtles - Sea turtles have existed on Earth for more than 150 million years, meaning that they co-existed with dinosaurs. There are seven species of sea turtles, five of which spend long periods on Mexican coasts, especially on the coasts of the Baja California peninsula. They come from places as far as Japan, southern Mexico and Hawaii. Sea turtles symbolize SURVIVAL, if they survive our destructive and ethnocentric civilization, all other species can survive as well.