It star­ted with an ex­hib­i­tion on Isla Con­toy

It started with an exhibition on Isla Contoy - nature reserve and tourist centre

Isla Con­toy is at the east­ern tip of the Yu­catan, very close to the ma­jor tour­ist centres of the Mex­ican Carib­bean coast. It is one of the Yu­catan’s most valu­able or­ni­tho­lo­gical nature re­serves. Due to the pre­vail­ing cur­rents, the pro­tec­ted wa­ters teem with fish and, so far, nearby reefs have shown little sign of coral death. Ever since 1961 the is­land has had pro­tec­ted status, and has more re­cently been des­ig­nated a Na­tional Park. However, in­suf­fi­cient re­sources are avail­able for re­search pro­jects, edu­ca­tion, mon­it­or­ing or sur­veil­lance of the Park bound­ar­ies.

The is­land is also used for tour­ism, and local op­er­at­ors run daily tours to the is­land, bring­ing vis­it­ors from neigh­bour­ing Isla Mujeres and the tour­ist centre of Cancun. The boats land in a small bay with a short, nar­row beach. Vis­it­ors are wel­comed by the mul­ti­lin­gual Na­tional Park guides and in­formed about the nature re­serve and its role, the dif­fer­ent bird spe­cies and other an­im­als likely to be en­countered dur­ing the trip.

 
As of May 2003, an ex­hib­i­tion con­ceived and presen­ted by the as­so­ci­ation Ami­gos de Isla Con­toy, with sup­port from the Light­house Found­a­tion and the European Union, has been open to the pub­lic in the Isla Con­toy vis­itor centre. Large-scale in­ter­pret­a­tion boards and in­form­at­ive mod­els are used to por­tray the di­verse hab­it­ats and fea­tures of the Na­tional Park. In ad­di­tion, the vis­itor centre’s view­ing tower of­fers an im­pos­ing view – with or without bin­ocu­lars – over the is­land, and after climb­ing its many steps, the pleas­ant cool­ness of the sea breeze at the top is very wel­come.

Gradual changeover of en­ergy sup­ply from diesel gen­er­at­ors to the use of solar and wind power. The pro­vi­sion of drink­ing wa­ter is met by treat­ing rain­wa­ter and has been ac­com­pan­ied by the in­tro­duc­tion of ef­fi­cient waste wa­ter treat­ment fa­cil­it­ies. Con­toy has, thus, be­come a show­case for en­vir­on­ment­ally com­pat­ible tech­no­logy.