Natividad Island Divers’ and Fishermen’s Cooperative, Mexico: Managing Natural Resources to Generate Wealth

Abstract

We begin our series of empirical cases with a small Mexican fishing cooperative, located close to the border with the USA. This example provides a link between the cooperative system and environmental issues. Natividad is a tiny and arid island, six by two kilometres, off Baja California’s coast in Mexico. Barely 400 people (80 families) live there. Life on the island depends entirely upon the Natividad Divers’ and Fishermen’s Cooperative, which exploits the maritime areas according to a concession contract with the government. The divers spend four to five hours every day under the water, linked to an oxygen tube and assisted by colleagues on a small boat above them. They mainly gather abalones, a very rare and expensive shellfish, and they earn a lot of money: a diver can earn up to US$10,000 a month.