The Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda emerged in 1987 from the concerns of a small group of local citizens worried about the rapid depletion of the natural resources of the Sierra Gorda and the urgent need to carry out recycling, reforestation and environmental education tasks.

The organization was initiated from the grass roots up, and has actively involved local people in a wide range of conservation works. The Grupo Ecológico has gained the trust of these citizens as well as the protection of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, which was decreed by the federal government in 1997. The Grupo Ecológico has received national and international recognition for its work.

The Grupo Ecológico´s success led to the approval in 2000 of an ambitious seven-year project (2001-2007) - Biodiversity Conservation in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve - financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with a $6.7 million U.S. leverage fund. The Grupo Ecológico is generating an additional $25 million in co-financing and associated financing in cooperation with a wide range of project partners.

The United Nations Development Program is the administrative agency of the GEF for this project, while the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) is the national executing agency. The Biosphere Reserve director’s office implements basic conservation and enforcement activities, while the Grupo Ecológico and its NGO ally Bosque Sustentable, A.C. implement the bulk of the conservation and sustainable use programs in the field.

The Grupo Ecológico has formal co-management responsibilities for the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, established by written agreement with CONANP, making the Reserve the first natural protected area in the country to be managed by different parties.

For 17 years, the Grupo Ecológico has been cultivating regional sustainability through recycling, community improvement, restoration, productive diversification, training, natural resource management, inter-institutional coordination, fund raising and other activities.

Community environmental education has been the principal engine for the creation of new attitudes, habits and actions. More than 20,000 serranos participate in different conservation projects and measures, including community education networks, recycling centers, community ecotourism, civil surveillance brigades, and forest fire volunteer brigades. All these projects have been made possible thanks to an organized civil society participating in developing solutions to local problems.

The Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve is an example of governing from the bottom up. Regional development objectives were established through years of intense consensus building and extensive promotion of the regulations and zoning officially published in the Reserve’s management program. This document was developed by the Grupo Ecológico at the request of the National Institute of Ecology (INE) because of the Grupo Ecológico´s extensive experience and knowledge of the area. Numerous communities utilize the management program to establish favorable social conditions for regional development and to protect and restore natural resources, including forests, waters, soils and biodiversity.

Besides receiving several awards and recognitions, the Grupo Ecológico was recently accepted as the 1,000th member of the prestigious World Conservation Union (UICN).