Reaching it would be quite a balancing act. President Vicente Fox promised in his inaugural address on Dec. 1 to build a ''Mexico with an environmental conscience,'' and he put Mr. Lichtinger in charge of creating it. Mr. Lichtinger, in turn, vows to enforce existing laws, and to try to pass tough new ones increasing penalties for crimes against the environment. In summer, the turtles, some of which run to 400 pounds, trundle up the beach to lay their eggs in the sand. But government policy has pushed tourism development without much regard for the land or the law for three decades, ever since the cement mixers came to Cancun.
Tourism has to be based on the protection of Mexico's beauty.
Leveling land all along the Caribbean coast, bulldozers have destroyed uncounted acres of mangrove. The mangroves were a natural filter for the ocean and a nursery for marine life. When the mangroves died, the coral reefs that line the coast began crumbling, clear lagoons turned cloudy, and sea life suffered. For every new hotel room, five homes for workers are required, Mr. Lichtinger said. Tens of thousands of poor families have flocked to the coast from all over Mexico and Central America.