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Conservación de la
Biodiversidad en la Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra
Gorda
Third
Quarter July – September 2008
www.sierragorda.net
Private Natural Reserves
As a result of the excellent relationship
that Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG)
shares with its British partner, the World Land Trust (WLT), the
program referred to as the Network of
Private Nature Preserves in the Sierra Gorda
Biosphere Reserve (SGBR) was recently
expanded with the purchase of two new
properties.
These 300 and 200 hectare parcels of
land contain oak and pine-oak forests,
habitat of priority species such as ocelots,
jaguars and bearded wood-partridge, ensuring
areas of refuge for these and many other
species, as the plant communities of these
properties recover from several decades of
cattle grazing.
The lands were bought in the name of
Joya del Hielo a local organization that is
dedicated exclusively to the purchase of
lands for conservation.
The WLT brought together the funds of
two British businesses, The Mall and The
Stadium, who generously provided the
financial resources.
In both cases the land purchases are
adjacent to properties previously acquired
for conservation (El Pilón and Las Arenitas)
and they represent a significant enlargement
of the protected areas.
Likewise, with resources from the
Tropical Forest Forever Foundation of the
Gulf Coast Bird Observatory of the United
States, another property was acquired (50 hectares) that
expands the protected area of Hoya Verde,
assuring cloud forest and pine-oak forest
habitat for the threatened and endemic
bearded wood partridge, present in healthy
numbers in the region.
It is an excellent accomplishment,
and we express our most sincere gratitude to
our partners and donors, who have made an
important contribution to the protection of
our biodiversity.
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Roberto Pedraza Muñoz
- Director of Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda
and member of Joya del Hielo AC. He
coordinates the Network of
Private Natural Reserves
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EcoClubs - Recycling
campaign to collect PET plastic. |
Recognition for the Entrepreneurship of
Young residents
Once again, the
network of Ecoclubs of the Sierra Gorda was
awarded a recognition, thanks to the
motivation and hard work of its young
members.
In this case the Ecoclubs were
recognized for their work in reforestation,
community clean-up and recycling campaigns,
and outreach and education for the rural
mountain population.
In this occasion the recognition
stemmed from the Instituto Mexicano de la
Juventud y Pulso Joven (Mexican Institute of
Youth and Young Pulse), that offered the sum
of $50.000 pesos, which the young club
members will spend on the
establishment of a
silkscreen workshop as a source of
self-financing for their activities.
This recognition fills us with pride,
as the Ecoclubs are an initiative of GESG
that the youth have made their own, working
in diverse manners to conserve their home,
the Sierra Gorda.
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The Tallberg Foundation unites experts in Sweden
Having as its base a small
town in the north of Sweden, the Tallberg Forum is a
celebration that takes place every year (June
26-29), which unites a variety of people who work
all around the world in favor of diverse causes.
This year´s outstanding leaders included the
ex-secretary of the UN, Mr. Kofi Annan and the King
of Sweden, His Majesty Carlos Gustavo XVI.
We had the honor of being invited by the
Tallberg Foundation to this year´s celebration.
Roberto Pedraza Ruiz
attended, representing GESG and participating in the
work group on climatic change, made up of leading
scientists like James Hansen, Scientific Director of
NASA, among others.
These experts made it all too clear that we
are doing far too little to combat climate change.
We are already feeling the all too real effects of
climate change, which in the near future will
without a doubt become the greatest threat to
humanity and life on our planet. Although it was a
powerful and somewhat chilling experience to see
firsthand such resounding and well-supported data,
it was also a productive trip in terms of
networking.
We made numerous new contacts and our
activities in the development of ecosystem service
products generated a lot of interest.
This may even become one of the initiatives
of the Tallberg Forum.
San
Isidro dry stone wall in the micro-watershed. A
reforestation is providing carbon as one of multiple
environmental services.
European Partners
The relationship between Grupo Ecológico Sierra
Gorda and the Spanish environmental organizations
AccióNatura and Ecología y Desarrollo has passed
into a new stage, in which we hope to finalize
projects of special importance.
The first is a large carbon offset generated
through reforestations in the Sierra Gorda to be
provided to Ecología y Desarrollo through a joint
initiative they share with AccióNatura,
www.CeroCO2.org.
CeroCO2 seeks to combat the impacts of
climate change, and we are pleased to join this
initiative.
The second area of collaboration is around
securing resources for the creation and
implementation of a new Management Plan for the
SGBR, to be carried out in concert with the local
population.
These funds from the Biodiversity Foundation
of the Government of Spain will be channeled through
AccióNatura.
We hope that this is the beginning of a long
relationship of collaboration with the first Iberian
partners of the Sierra Gorda project.
Sierra Gorda on display at the Alameda Hidalgo,
Querétaro
The Alemeda Hidalgo, a central park in the City of
Querétaro, will be the site of a special
photographic and digital art exhibit November 4,
2008 through March of 2009. The exhibit will bring
the beauty of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve to
residents and visitors of the State Capital, through
the exhibition of 97 images in large format (1.82 X 1.22 meters) along the
park´s outer fencing. The exhibit was developed by
local artists from the state of Queretaro, Rubén
Octavio Navarrete Galván and Elena Baca with their photographs of mountain beauty
and by Jorán with digital art. The exhibit will be
possible thanks to the generous economic support of
Bombardier, a Canadian company established in our
state, which paid for the printing of the images,
SECTUR sponsoring the promotion of the event, the
City Council facilitating the space and
installation, and GESG and the Direction of the
Biosphere Reserve who have been the organizing
promoters of this event which without a doubt will
be a highly visual and informative attraction.
www.sierragorda.net
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Grupo Ecológico is one of the 22 project
winners in the Development Marketplace
competition of the World Bank
This year´s
Development Marketplace, a competitive grant
program, took place at the headquarters of
the World Bank in
Washington,
DC.
Development projects from around the
world came together to compete for funds to
pursue innovative projects with high impact
in the areas of poverty reduction,
sustainable development and biodiversity
protection.
In the first phase of the contest
1768 projects applied from all over the
world, of which only 100 were chosen to
participate as guests in the second phase of
the contest.
In the final competition only 22
projects were awarded, after expert members
of an international jury interviewed and
questioned each of the project
representatives. The most winning projects
were from Latin America and the Caribbean
(8), followed by East Asia and the Pacific
(6), Africa (5) and
South Asia (3).
Cambodia,
Ecuador,
India, Vietnam, Mexico
(Chiapas
and Querétaro) and Brazil each had
two project winners.
Roberto Pedraza Ruiz represented
Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda with the
project "Reducing the Impacts of Livestock
Ranching on Biodiversity," which includes
the modernization of livestock breeding on 5
pilot demonstration ranches as well as
payments for environmental services to
owners of temperate and tropical forests and
the development of an integrated ecosystem
services product that will have great social
and environmental impacts.
Winning support for our projects in
such a highly competitive international
event gives us great satisfaction, as does
the fact that two projects.
This event was organized by the World Bank in
collaboration with the International Finance
Corporation, the GEF, the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation and the Agency of
Cooperation of Germany, GTZ.
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Roberto
Pedraza Ruiz presents
the project to judges at the World Bank
headquarters and the project was one winner
of the Development
Marketplace, September 2008. |
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/OPPORTUNITIES/GRANTS/DEVMARKETPLACE/0,,
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