Abstract

Akumal Q. Roo has an ecological and economical importance due to the high biodiversity supported by a wetlands and bays system, along with beaches, seagrass beds and reefs. It was the first tourist resort in mainland Q. Roo and is part of the tourist corridor Cancun-Tulum. Its infrastructure and urban area are not the greatest in the region, but it has the highest room occupancy rate in the Riviera Maya. Although it is not an MPA it has a local land-use plan focused on regulation of marine activities (fishing, transport, snorkel, etc.), which is implemented in parallel to state and federal environmental laws. From the identification of degradation trends in the reef associated to natural and anthropogenic pressures, it became important to assess the effectiveness of the management strategies in Akumal. For this, past and present reef condition was considered, with emphasis on incidence of coral diseases. The effectiveness of the management strategies was assessed using socio-economic, governance and environmental indicators, as well as content analysis, identifying additional manage-ment needs and unaddressed issues. One of the most important issues is the lack of inclusion of the untreated residual water discharges along the coast. This issue must be a priority to resolve in order to local conservation efforts to be successful.

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