MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico announced Friday that it is cancelling provisional permits for an enormous, Cancun-sized resort planned for the Baja California shoreline in front of a protected coral reef, a project that environmentalists said threatened an area that is a model for environmental recovery.

The announcement is meant to protect the Cabo Pulmo reserve, the only coral reef in the Gulf of California, a formerly over-fished area where marine life has exploded following a decision almost two decades ago by local residents to stop commercial fishing and develop ecotourism activities instead.