10 March: what we have achieved for the Mesoamerican Reef

On Mesoamerican Reef Day, a young movement takes stock: a signed restoration programme, murals across seven states, and a long way still to go.

Today is International Mexican Reef Day. In 1997 the leaders of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras formally recognised their commitment to conserving the 1,000 km of coral reef in the Mesoamerican Reef System. Since 2007 it has been marked as Mesoamerican Reef Day.

We are a movement created in 2015, driven by the motivation to change the fate of the planet's oceans. The aim is to reinvent how marine conservation is approached internationally — through efficient action and through the most stimulating and meaningful patterns we can find.

Our objective: to create the first social innovation campaign focused on preserving the Mesoamerican Reef System in Mexico.

We are a relatively young movement. During the Quintana Roo election, we put a campaign commitment to the candidate Carlos Joaquín: if he won, he would plant one coral for every vote received.

Once he took office, the Governor signed the agreement to launch the Coral Reef Restoration Programme. We are proud to have contributed to putting the restoration and protection of marine life onto the public agenda.

We want to thank the Secretary of the Environment and the Coordinator of Government Liaison for believing that a campaign commitment could become a trigger for public policy.

It does not stop there. There is still an enormous amount of work ahead, and it needs more hands than ours.