Mapping the Environment: Ecology and Community Engagement in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur
By Anya Kaplan-Hartnett
Nov. 16, 2022
This project includes a map of sites of environmental action and ecological significance in the Todos Santos area. Explore the map below to learn more about these sites and continue scrolling to hear about the region from the residents themselves. The audio segments on this site are bilingual, though the Spanish sections include an English translation from Andrea Sanchez.
Todos Santos Community Needs Assessment
In opening an education and research center in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, Colorado State University made a long-term commitment to the community and the region. Central to CSU’s longevity and success in Todos Santos is developing partnerships with community members and regional institutions built on mutual respect, trust, and accountability.
This ongoing process of relationship building, in which we seek to understand each other’s cultures, priorities, hopes, and challenges sets the stage for CSU faculty to collaboratively design and implement educational programs and research projects for both the community and CSU students, that cultivate shared goals and mutual commitment. This collaboration helps provide long-term holistic solutions to community priorities and enriches student and faculty experiences.
To this end, CSU Todos Santos, with the help of CSU faculty and students, developed a participatory community approach to help guide program development in the Todos Santos region, which began with a Community Assessment in June 2015. This process included talking with more than 150 individuals from Todos Santos, El Pescadero, and gathering baseline data around socio-economic, demographic, geographic, environmental, health, and agricultural factors. The top community priorities identified this process included youth engagement, language classes (especially English), education system, valuing the environment (water, waste management, mines), public health, sustainable development, business training, and alternative models. This information can be matched with the areas identified by the communities as priorities to better understand the current situation and help guide further collaborative research and educational programming.
A follow-up needs assessment was conducted in 2020.
Read the 2015 report and summary.
Read the 2020 report and summary.
Contact for more information:
- Kim Kita — Director, CSU Todos Santos
- Idalia Paz y Puente — Associate Director, CSU Todos Santos
- Carlos Fernando Gutierrez Arcia — Consultant, CSU Todos Santos
- Aines Castro Prieto — Consultant, CSU Todos Santos
Todos Santos and El Pescadero: Socio-demographic and Environmental Overview
CSU Todos Santos commissioned this report during the summer of 2015. This report aims to provide baseline information on socio-demographic and environmental aspects of Todos Santos and El Pescadero regions in Baja California Sur, Mexico. CSU Todos Santos is located in the town of Todos Santos, Baja California Sur. El Pescadero, a rural village nearby, is strongly connected to Todos Santos, and therefore both localities were considered the focus regions for the present report. The information provided here, in addition to the community-based participatory research conducted by CSU Todos Santos, will contribute to the process of identifying the principal priorities and challenges that the communities in the focus regions are facing. In turn, this helps prioritize research and educational programs that CSU Todos Santos offers to the CSU and local communities. The sources of the present information were derived mainly from published documents, national public databases (i.e., The National Institute of Statistics and Geography INEGI), and in some cases, through official information requests to regional governmental institutions. A significant source of information is the “sub-regional Program for Urban Development in Todos Santos – El Pescadero – Las Playitas” developed by the Center of Urban Studies and Architecture CEURA and published at the Official Bulletin of the Government of the State of Baja California Sur in 2012. All the information provided here is referenced appropriately and open to the general public. There are no personal opinions or communications included in this report.
Contact the author:
- Aines Castro Prieto, Ph.D. — Affiliate Professor, Department of Biology, Colorado State University; Programs Development & Research, CSU Todos Santos Center