How Much of Baja California Sur
Is Protected?

People often ask us whether Baja is going the way of Los Cabos: more hotels, more roads, less wild coast. The honest answer is that a large part of this state is federal protected land and sea, and most of the places we take you are inside it. Here is what is protected, what that protection does and doesn't mean, and what is still being argued over.

A Big State With Few People

Baja California Sur covers about 73,900 square kilometers, and at the 2020 census it had the lowest population density of any state in Mexico, roughly 11 people per square kilometer. Most of that space is desert, mountains and coast with no town in sight.

Much of it is also protected by law. Mexico's protected areas are run by CONANP, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, under the environment ministry (SEMARNAT). How big a share of the state they cover depends on whether you count islands and sea, but one reserve alone, El Vizcaíno in the north, takes up about a third of the state's land.

The Protected Places You Visit From La Paz

Isla Espíritu Santo and Los Islotes

The islands of the Espíritu Santo archipelago are protected as part of the Gulf of California Islands Flora and Fauna Protection Area, first decreed in 1978 and covering hundreds of islands across four states. In May 2007 the sea around Espíritu Santo and Isla Partida became a national park of its own, about 48,650 hectares of water, including the sea lion colony at Los Islotes. The islands of the Gulf are also part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Every visitor to the park pays a CONANP fee. On our shared Isla Espíritu Santo tour it is included in the price, and private charters include it too.

Balandra

Balandra, the lagoon north of La Paz with the mushroom-shaped rock, was decreed a Flora and Fauna Protection Area in November 2012. It covers about 2,512 hectares, roughly 1,193 of them at sea, and protects the mangroves, dunes and shallow bay together. Visitors wear a park bracelet; on our Balandra tour the bracelet is included.

The whale shark refuge in La Paz Bay

The whale sharks feed inside a federal refuge in La Paz Bay, created in 2018. It has its own management plan, which sets where boats can go, how many go out and how close you can swim. We explain it in How Whale Shark Season Works in La Paz.

Sierra La Laguna

The mountains you see on the drive between La Paz and Los Cabos are a biosphere reserve, decreed in 1994 and covering about 112,400 hectares of pine-oak and dry tropical forest. The sierra catches far more rain than the desert around it, and that water feeds the aquifers both cities depend on.

The Rest of the State

• El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve (1988). About 2.55 million hectares, the largest protected area in Mexico. It includes the Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio lagoons, where gray whales give birth each winter. A large saltworks planned for San Ignacio Lagoon was dropped in 2000 after years of opposition.
• Bahía de Loreto National Park (1996). About 206,600 hectares of sea and islands off Loreto, including Isla Carmen, Coronados and Danzante.
• Cabo Pulmo National Park (1995). A small reef park on the East Cape that has become a worldwide example. A Scripps Institution of Oceanography study published in 2011 found the fish biomass on the reef grew 463 percent between 1999 and 2009, largely because the local community kept fishing out of it.
• Islands of the Pacific Biosphere Reserve (2016). Protects the Pacific islands of the peninsula, including the islands of Magdalena Bay. The water itself is not part of the reserve. We watch gray whales on the same bay from Puerto Chale.
• Cabo San Lucas Flora and Fauna Protection Area (1973). The sea around Land's End and its underwater canyon, one of the oldest protected areas in the state.

Protected Does Not Mean Untouchable

Most reserves are split into core zones, where almost nothing is allowed, and much larger buffer zones, where towns, fishing, ranching and some industry continue under federal rules. A line on a map also does not settle every fight.

Los Cardones. An open-pit gold mine was planned for more than 400 hectares inside the Sierra La Laguna reserve. It received its federal environmental permit in 2014. In November 2024 SEMARNAT annulled that permit after an appeal by local organizations, but those same groups say the project has not been cancelled for good, and in 2025 they were still in court over it.

Dos Mares. A group of conservation organizations and a fishing association called DEPESCA have proposed a reserve of about 192,000 square kilometers, reaching roughly 50 miles out to sea on both coasts of the state. Small-scale and sport fishing would continue; industrial fishing would not. Some fishing communities on the Pacific side oppose it, and no decree had been published as of 2025.

What It Means on Your Tour

On our side, it means permits, park fees and rules we follow every day: where we can anchor, how we approach wildlife, how many people go in the water. On yours, it mostly means listening to your guide, using reef-safe sunscreen and leaving shells, rocks and coral where you found them. The park fees for Espíritu Santo and Balandra are already in our prices, so there is nothing extra to pay at the dock.