Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda participates in the Changemakers Challenge, “Cultivating Innovations: Solutions for Rural Communities”, an on-line collaborative competition that seeks to identify innovative solutions to improve the quality of life in the rural communities and ranches.  Sierra Gorda in Queretaro State has a group of 18 young rural entrepreneurs concerned about the future of their region. They joined together to reorient farming activities and to innovate pilot farms of holistic intensive cattle ranching and lower the impact of extensive grazing in the forest understory. You are invited to participate by supporting our proposal on-line, please write your comments to position our nomination.  http://changemakers.net/es/node/20562

On May 5th the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve will present an educational exposition that will be inaugurated in Queretaro City at the Education and Cultural Center Mario Gómez Morín of Querétaro State. The space will build public awareness in the state capital about the exceptional values and natural beauty of the north of the State and help relate them to the forests and jungles found here.  Visit and learn about our complete dependence on the health of Nature.

The Federal Electricity Commission of Mexico is once again defying local opposition by neighborhoods, civil organizations and the regional authority of the Biosphere Reserve to refuse a major high voltage power line project that would conduct an excessive 115kvs, divide the natural protected area and break the federal regulations that prevent land use change in the non-urban areas of the Biosphere Reserve. Beware of a public works project that frankly ignores the legal framework designed to protect the Biosphere; beware when simply upgrading local infrastructure is overlooked to put up 112 towers for voltage sufficient for a medium sized industrial city in a rural mountain range; and instead of detours or lesser infrastructure, CFE is imposing its will to spite the rising civil discontent.  Citizens in Jalpan de Serra have organized to stop the power line project, proud to protect the landscape of their town, a UNESCO Cultural Heritage site for a XVIII century Franciscan Mission.

To summarize, this project will have a high impact on the environment that cannot be mitigated; it defies reason, the law and the purpose of having decreed the region a protected natural area in the first place. The net loss that the project represents for this unique Reserve is unacceptable by the local population who are proud of conserving the area.  The National Commission of Natural Protected Areas of the Environmental Ministry stand firmly against the project and yet CFE has not retired the proposal, to the contrary. SAVE SIERRA GORDA by sending a letter about your concern to the Mexican President, Mr. Felipe Calderón, the Minister of Environment, Mr. Juan Elvira Quesada.  This threat is real and your help can stop it.

Write the President today!       http://contacto.presidencia.gob.mx/Peticiones/

In the eastern reaches of the Reserve, between the core protected areas of Cañada de las Avispas and the Barranca de Paguas, a place called El Socavón is located. An impressive vertical cave, a colony of green parrots (Aratinga holochlora) is surrounded by cloud and pine-oak forests with unique conservation value. Other relevant species that find refuge are venados temazate, tigrillos, ocelotes, viejos de monte, chivizcoyos, momotos, trogones, trepadores, among others that will naturally benefit from protection of the 30 hectare property.  The current owner is putting pressure on the site by allowing illegal logging and our goal is to raise the funds to buy the property for permanent protection.

Thanks to the Philanthropic Association of Cummins (AFIC in Spanish) and its network of donors, we feel confident this site will be purchased as a private natural reserve within the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.  AFIC is an institution who has made commitments to conservation in the Sierra Gorda before and is increasing the surface area of private reserves they support here.  By purchasing lands for strict conservation as a long term mechanism eliminates any threat or activities from having an environmental impact.  It is our hope this site soon joins the list of privately protected areas.

May 14th to the 16^th:  The 2^nd Workshop for Fundraising and Public Relations for Conservation will be held in the installations of Centro Tierra Sierra Gorda (CTSG) in Jalpan de Serra.  Partnerships between the civil society and the federal government has facilitated raising financial resources to defend this particular territory, and CTSG offers training to NGOS s, protected area managers, and conservation professionals seeking to develop the skills needed for their organizational strength and for building alliances to benefit protected areas around the country.  For more information contact Cristina Montoya at (441)296 0242 or cmontoya@sierragorda.net

22 May:  CTSG offers a course on Agro Homeopathic Treatment thanks to the support of SEDEA and the Mitsubishi Foundation for the Americas and will have regional and national producers attending through the growing network of farmers and ranchers interested in organic management alternatives.  The topic will address forest and garden diseases, as well as orchards and even sicknesses affecting cattle and other livestock.  Dr. Radko Tichavsky from the Comenius Institute in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon will provide the training and materials.  For more information contact Cristina Montoya at 441.296.0242 or cmontoya@sierragorda.net

In the search for new alternatives that bring the Sierra Gorda mountain region closer to more holistic management,  a new series of demonstration pilot projects for ecological cattle ranching on 10 farms is beginning.  These farms are our learning laboratories and they have opened the door for many conservation areas in the country, working soil restoration associated with livestock, increasing the capture of carbon under proper cattle management and a new opportunity.  Dr. Fulvio Gioanetto  and Mr. Sergio Olvera provided a valuable workshop on organic cattle ranching and were well received by many interested ranchers.  This course was made possible thanks to support from the Agro-Livestock Development Secretariat (SEDEA in Spanish) of the Queretaro State Government and was carried out from March 30 to April 1 at the Centro Tierra Sierra Gorda campus in Jalpan de Serra, Querétaro.