Weaving a National Network of Women Ocean Stewards in Mexico
Across Mexico, women are restoring habitats, protecting fisheries, monitoring marine ecosystems, and generating critical ecological knowledge. Together, Women’s Earth Alliance and Sirenas de México are helping weave a national network that connects women ocean stewards across Mexico's coastlines and demonstrates the power of connection in ocean stewardship.
From kelp forests to mangroves to the largest coral reef of the Americas, Mexico is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth. Mexico’s marine ecosystems not only sustain extraordinary life underwater but are also deeply woven into coastal cultures, supporting the livelihoods, food systems, and traditions of communities across thousands of kilometers of shoreline.
Yet these ecosystems face mounting pressures from overfishing, pollution, and unsustainable resource use. As these pressures grow, so does the need for stewardship that safeguards both marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.
Across Mexico, women are already leading that work, drawing on deep local knowledge and a commitment to the communities and ecosystems they call home.
Community divers, fishers, educators, and conservation leaders are monitoring marine ecosystems, restoring habitats, protecting fisheries, and generating critical ecological knowledge from within their own communities. Much of what we know about ocean health comes from this kind of place-based expertise. Across Mexico, women community divers track ecological changes, monitor species and habitats, and generate knowledge that informs conservation and local decision-making.
Women Diving Into the Ocean—Often Alone
Despite the significance of their work, women community divers have often worked in isolation. Many are based in remote coastal communities, separated by geography, limited connectivity, and institutional barriers. Their contributions are often undervalued within male-dominated fishing and conservation sectors, and opportunities for peer exchange, funding, and technical accompaniment are scarce.
This isolation extends beyond geography. Sustaining conservation work while navigating limited access to resources and the invisible labor of holding collectives together takes a toll. For many women community divers, there has been no national space to share experiences, and their voices and deep expertise have been excluded from decision-making spaces that shape the future of ocean conservation.
It was this challenge that gave rise to Sirenas de México. For many participants, the gathering marked the first time they met other women doing similar work in different parts of the country.
“Meeting other Sirenas de México was deeply transformative for me. It made me realize that I am not alone—that there are many of us, women from different territories, leading community projects with effort, love, and conviction. In a sector historically dominated by men, being alongside other sirenas meant recognizing our collective strength, our shared struggles, and our ability to open new paths.” — Geo, community diver
The Birth of Sirenas de México
Sirenas de México emerged from a shared vision held by community leaders Hañela and Elba, with support from Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI). As the vision took shape, WEA partnered with Hañela, Elba, and other emerging Sirenas leaders through a process of deep listening, trust-building, and collective design. What began as an effort to connect women working in isolation grew into a national network connecting women already caring for Mexico's oceans across diverse coastal communities.
Across Mexico's coastlines, women were already studying, monitoring, restoring, and protecting marine ecosystems. Their work spanned coral reefs, mangrove forests, fisheries, kelp forests, and coastal waters, generating local knowledge and strengthening coastal communities..
After a year of mapping, conversations, and trust-building, the network identified 55 women leaders working across the country. Together, they revealed something larger than a collection of individual projects: a growing movement of women ocean stewards across Mexico. The next step was clear: they needed to meet.
“The ocean is my home, my school, and my refuge. It taught me that we are not owners of the territory, but part of it. Over time, seeing ghost nets, pollution, and the loss of species moved me to turn love into action. Caring for the sea from within my community is a way of giving thanks—and of ensuring that future generations can experience it alive.” — Hañela Ancona Balam, co-founder of Sirenas de México
From Isolated Leadership to Collective Power: The First National Gathering of Sirenas de México
Sirenas de México offers a powerful example of what becomes possible when women leaders are connected across territories and supported as peers. Together, they are advancing ocean stewardship through community science, restoration, and local governance.
The First National Gathering of Sirenas de México was designed as a process of collective inquiry rather than a traditional conference or training. Participants explored a series of questions: How do we build trust across territories? What skills, relationships, and support systems do women need to sustain community-led marine conservation? And what becomes possible when women realize they are not alone?
While their contexts differ, from the Pacific to the Gulf, from mangroves to reefs, the challenges they face are strikingly similar: exclusion from decision-making spaces, limited access to resources, emotional burnout, and the burden of sustaining collectives within sectors that have been historically dominated by men.
“Being a woman diver and community monitor gave me the opportunity to be part of the fishing value chain—something I was once excluded from simply for being a woman. Through diving, we become the eyes of those who cannot dive and the voice of the ocean. With every immersion, we take on the responsibility to protect and care for the life that sustains our communities.” — Esme, community diver and marine monitor
Beyond connection and mutual support, the Sirenas are helping reshape whose expertise is recognized in ocean conservation and whose knowledge informs decision-making. Members of the network have participated in international spaces such as the United Nations World Ocean Forum, contributed local data and lived experience to national conservation conversations, and engaged in shaping public narratives and policies related to ocean governance. Their work demonstrates something that extends far beyond Mexico: some of the most effective solutions for caring for our oceans are already being led by people rooted in the places they serve. When their leadership is recognized, connected, and resourced, the benefits ripple across ecosystems and communities alike.
A Model Rooted in Trust and Local Leadership
Across Mexico's coastlines, Sirenas are advancing restoration efforts, protecting fisheries, and stewarding coastal territories. Some are pursuing technical certifications, including Divemaster training, while others are integrating science, traditional knowledge, education, and community organizing in their work.
The gathering strengthened relationships and collaboration across a movement already in motion. Designed as a horizontal, safe, and inclusive process, the gathering created time and space for women to recognize one another, exchange experiences, and build trust across territories.
Rather than focusing solely on technical training, the gathering recognized emotional resilience, peer support, and collective care as essential foundations for long-term stewardship. Through shared stories, embodied practices, and a skills marketplace, participants exchanged technical knowledge, leadership tools, and strategies for sustaining collective work across regions.
In moments of collective reflection, many participants recognized how rarely they pause to acknowledge their own impact. Seen together, their individual efforts revealed something larger: a national movement already creating ecological, social, and cultural change, now strengthened through connection and shared purpose.
Before strategy or skills, the gathering centered on relationships.
Learning From Experience, Dreaming Forward
A visit to Las Guardianas del Conchalito, a women-led collective restoring mangroves and cultivating oysters in La Paz, offered a living example of long-term, community-driven conservation. Their story of internal conflict, shared leadership, perseverance, and restoration resonated deeply, especially for younger collectives just beginning their journeys. Through years of collective effort, they transformed an area once marked by pollution and neglect into a thriving mangrove ecosystem, creating new nurseries and renewed habitat for coastal life.
Inspired by this experience, the Sirenas reflected on what they want for the next phase of the network: what skills need strengthening, how their work is already transforming communities and ecosystems, and how to organize collectively for greater impact. The conversations moved fluidly between the local and the global, recognizing that community knowledge can shape national and international narratives.
Beyond the Gathering
As the Sirenas network continues to grow, so does its potential to influence the future of marine conservation in Mexico.
The First National Gathering of Sirenas de México marked the beginning of a new chapter. What emerged was a shared understanding that technical expertise, emotional intelligence, and collective care are inseparable in community-led ocean stewardship. By weaving relationships across territories, the Sirenas are strengthening a movement of women who know their seas deeply and who are no longer working alone.
For WEA, Sirenas de México reflects something we see across our work around the world: lasting environmental solutions grow from the knowledge, leadership, and relationships already rooted in communities. When women leaders have opportunities to learn from one another across territories and strengthen their collective impact, entire ecosystems and communities benefit. This World Oceans Day, the Sirenas remind us that some of the most powerful answers for the future of our oceans are already here, being led from the shoreline outward.
