Las Palmas Beach Zoning Process of Esmeraldas Cantón, Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador, Corresponding to the Period 2017-2019

Through the Integrated Coastal Management tool, the Municipality of Esmeraldas, with technical support from both the Ministry of the Environment and Water - MAAE, and the Coastal Marine Project - International Conservation, MINTUR and FLOPEC, implemented the Las Palmas beach zoning process, of the Canton and Province of Esmeraldas. This beach is located in the urban perimeter of the city and in the area adjacent to the Manglares Estuario Río Esmeraldas Wildlife Refuge, an area highly intervened because it is the main distraction site for the population, in order to implement the process that allows the organization of recreational and conservation activities that ensure the arrival and nesting of sea turtles, migratory species that are in a vulnerable state according to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the strengthening tourism development. For this purpose, criteria such as the area of greatest nesting, presence of anthropic threats, conflicts of use, lack of regulations, identification of key actors, characteristics of the beach, carrying capacity, and permitted and prohibited activities were specified. The analysis of each one of them for the determination of the zoning was generated through the gathering of technical information in the field, analysis of existing information, implementation of participatory techniques (meetings, workshops, inter-institutional evaluations and participatory processes with key actors), in addition to the photographic record through a drone, on the uses that are generated in each of them. It is concluded that the zoning of the beach is a management strategy, for the ordering of the activities carried out there, aimed at the conservation of migratory species and tourism development, through the participation of key actors and the definition of technical, socioeconomic and governance criteria.