Located in Western Mexico and traversing the states of Jalisco and Colima, the Ayuquila River is approximately 3 hours by car from the city of Guadalajara. The river is part of the Ayuquila – Armería basin, which at the lower end is divided into three sub-basins: the Armería, the Ayuquila, and the Tuxcacuesco Rivers. Combined the Ayuquila-Armería rivers are 294 km in length. About 550,000 people live in the basin distributed in 22 municipalities. Within the river basin, there is a fertile valley between the towns of Autlán and El Grullo where the main economic activity is intensive production of sugar cane. A sugar mill began operations in this valley in 1972.
About 100 km from its source the river system is damed at Tacotán. A further 15 km downstream there is a second dam at Trigomil and within another 20 km there is the Corcovado diversion dam where most of the water is extracted for use in agricultural irrigation. Downstream from this valley the river borders the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve (SMBR) for about 70 km. Here the terrain is not suitable for large-scale agriculture, and communities have historically dedicated to subsistence agriculture and fishing. At the eastern edge of the Reserve, the Ayuquila River joins with the Tuxcacuesco River to form the Armería River for the last 135 km before draining into the Pacific Ocean.
In the Ayuquila watershed, the economic benefits from development are not evenly spread. Some upstream communities such as municipalities Autlán and El Grullo have done relatively well from the intensive, export agriculture including sugar cane, watermelon, tomato, and chile. However, the downstream communities at places such as Tuxcacuesco and Tolimán have fared less well and rely on subsistence farming, livestock, and fisheries. At the same time, water pollution from the sugar mill and untreated sewage from the upstream communities have had negative impacts on the quality of life downstream. Pollution can be both a creeping problem and also catastrophic. In both instances, the impacts include loss of aquatic life and also health problems for people and their livestock.
The availability of sound scientific information and expert knowledge can play a key role in solving environmental problems. This is also true of this particular story where we find that key stakeholders put in place a series of successful initiatives to reduce pollution levels and restore the Ayuquila River ecosystem. These stakeholders include officials of the federal biosphere reserve of Mexico's Ministry of the Environment (SEMARNAP - Secretaría del Medio Ambiente Recursos Naturales y Pesca) in collaboration with researchers of the Manantlán Institute of Ecology and Conservation of Biodiversity of University of Guadalajara and the local communities, with the support of several international NGOs, academic institutions and funding agencies.
The story traces the evolution of the relationships between the different actors (the sugar mill management, the downstream communities, the researchers, the biosphere reserve, the local governments, etc.) and how the local situation changed from a conflictive and almost violent one, to the current situation where the different actors are collaborating to ensure the environmental protection of the river. Key challenges and solutions in achieving this collaboration are highlighted.
