Re-authoring of guides from capacity development processes, the key to the sustainable management of the whale shark in La Paz Bay

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a worldwide threatened species. La Paz Bay is a critical habitat for the species due to the juvenile that congregate in the area mainly for food and shelter. During 2016, studies recorded... [ view full abstract ]

The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a worldwide threatened species. La Paz Bay is a critical habitat for the species due to the juvenile that congregate in the area mainly for food and shelter. During 2016, studies recorded 62% of specimens injured and mutilated by boats. It is suggested to contact with boats as a result of a bad praxis in the performance of whale shark watching and swimming activity. In previous years, there has been an effort to train for good praxis and carrying out this activity. This paper analyses the role that the guides have played until now in the replication of bad praxis and establishes the hypothesis that a reauthoring process of the guides, will lead them to assume responsibility for the conservation of the species. Two workshops were designed; first aiming the service providers; second addressed to guides, focused on good praxis and mediation experience. The design of the workshop was based on the stream of environmental rationality, with a proposal of pedagogical approach of the subject from his own life. In 2017, 100 service providers and 120 guides were trained. Results: the creation of a professionalized guild; a guild that carries out good praxis during the exercise of its activity, a guild that is kept organized and has a constant communication through a learning community platform, a guild that has established a relationship of respect cooperation with the environmental authority in compliance with the rules and in the feedback of the reality in the field.