Ocean. Miguel Angel Vargas

Deputy Director
Conservation of Private Lands
Program Director
mvargas@pronatura-noroeste.org

Miguel Ángel collaborates with the Regional Management of Pronatura Northwest as Deputy Director, based out of the city and port of Ensenada, Baja California. He is an Oceanographer with a specialty in the Administration of Marine Resources and his experience in the environmental sector includes Environmental Assessment, Investment Projects in the fishing sector, Regional Studies, Environmental Education Assessment and the Coordinatation of Conservation Projects.

In 2001, Miguel Ángel began working with Pronatura and has established one of the most successful programs for Pronatura Northwest: the National Program for the Conservation of Private Lands. He has worked with landowners and communities to protect priority ecosystems in the region by means of a series of legal, social and financial mechanisms.

His principal achievements include the coordination of the processes that established the first binational conservation easement in Tecate, Baja California, the first chain of coastal conservation easements in Mexico and the largest coastal conservation easement on the Pacific Coast (San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California Sur).

In the last few years, he has coordinated and directed the efforts of the Alliance for the Conservation of the San Ignacio Lagoon whose principal goal is the involvement of local, regional and international players to guarantee the long term protection of this reproductive habitat for the grey whale and refuge for thousands of aquatic migratory bird species of importance for North America.