A Decade of Weaving Connections Across the Watershed
In 2026, Keep Loreto Magical marks ten years of community-led work dedicated to protecting Loreto’s precious natural resources — a living landscape shaped by desert, mountains, ranches, coastlines, and the complex watershed that connects them all. What began as a small grassroots effort has grown into a strong network of neighbors committed to caring for this place and for one another.
To celebrate a decade of collaboration, learning, and persistence, Keep Loreto Magical hosted a Ranch Forum on January 22nd at the UABCS Campus Loreto. The gathering brought together inhabitants from the different zones that share the same watershed — people who live, produce, consume, and promote within it — recognizing that the health of the land and water depends on shared responsibility across the territory.
Under the theme “The Baja California Sur Ranch in the 21st Century: Challenges, Alternatives, and Legal Framework,” the forum became a space to reflect on where ranching communities are today, to acknowledge challenges, recognize achievements, and explore new ways of working together toward a more resilient future.
The forum brought together voices that examined the present and future of ranching from multiple perspectives.
*Ricardo Salomé Fuerte local rancher, opened the discussion by exploring how production models can be updated through a productive–economic approach that strengthens local livelihoods while honoring ranching traditions.
*Francisco Olmos from Niparajá followed, by presenting governance tools for ranch collectives, highlighting legal and participatory mechanisms that support collaboration, land stewardship, and shared decision-making across the watershed.
*Cecilia Fischer Cavia from the perspective of tourism and communication, explored how the image of the ranch can serve as a platform for travel promotion and regional marketing rooted in authenticity and respect for place, ensuring that the income stays with the ranches.
*Eve Giovenco, a long-time volunteer who helped spark the first Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative in the region, spoke about CSA financing models as a way to strengthen food security, build trust-based economies, and reconnect communities with local producers.
*Expanding the conversation beyond local borders, Mariana Urías Malvido reflected on the ranch as part of a global community, emphasizing tourism and cultural exchange as tools to build meaningful connections between territories.
*The forum concluded with Humberto Meza Nubes, from an Organization of first settlers, who outlined the roles and functions of the Indigenous and Afro-American Governance of Baja California Sur, underscoring leadership, rights, and collective responsibility as essential foundations for a dignified and resilient rural future.
More than a series of presentations, the First Ranch Forum embodied what Keep Loreto Magical has been nurturing for ten years: care for the environment, combining different forms of knowledge by involving reserchers, academics, tecnicians, scientist; and weave the collaboration beetwen locals and foreigners, to keep it a shared commitment. By bringing together people who live, work, and care for different parts of the same watershed, the event reaffirmed a simple and undeniable truth — protecting Loreto’s natural and cultural heritage is a collective effort.
As Keep Loreto Magical steps into its second decade, the commitment remains the same: to keep weaving relationships, strengthening local voices, and caring for the land and waters that make Loreto truly magical.