Talk to you soon.
Greetings.
Rafael Alvarez Martinez
Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda.
Queretaro, Mexico
e-mail: c73sg@sunserver.uaq.mx
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INTEGRAL RESCUE PLAN FOR THE SIERRA GORDA IN MEXICO
The deforestation of large areas for livestock and agricultural
purposes and the abscence of a culture with love and respect for nature
is driving the Siera Gorda Queretana, as well as the rest of the country,
to lose its valuable natural resources, innumerable plant and animal
species, and to serious sanitation problems and extreme poverty amonga a
grand part of the population.
The Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda, A.C., a non-profit organization
of strongly compromised local members, now with nine years facing these
problems, is deeply penetrating the social conciousness with community
and school-wide team work, commercial reforestation, protection of
species and general clean-up with great sucess.
This is being realized with the participation of more than 17000
serranos each year, in a region of 500 000 hectares that houses a great
natural wealth due to its many and varied ecosystems.
The objective of the plan is the integral rescue of the Sierra
Gorda Queretana and the search for the protection and regeneration of its
natural resources, the creation of jobs and autosufficiency in the
communities through conciousness raising of more than 16 000 children in
160 schools, reforestation of 1 000 hectares for future harvest by year
and teh preservation of natural forest as refuges for biodiversity,
health and strength of the wealth of the people, providing alternatives
for improving living conditions.
The Sierra Gorda is located on the border of a semidesertous
region of Central Mexico. It occupies the northern part of the state of
Queretaro, and portions of the states of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi and
Hidalgo. The Sierra Gorda is also a refuge for several animal species in
danger of extinction: jaguars, tigrillos, jaguarundi and the military
macaw to mention a few. There are also several endemic species, both
plant and animal, which certainly warrant further study.
In addition, migratory species, such as the Monarch butterfly and
the Peregrine Falcon trace their paths through the Sierra. The second
deepest well in the world: "El Sotano del Barro" is located here along
with hundreds of other deep wells and subterranean waters. The mountains
also contain a rich cultural and historical heritage in more than 500
archeological sites, many of which have yet to be studied and documented.
Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda began working in 1987 and became a
non-profit civil association in 1989. Its mission is the integral rescue
of the Sierra Gorda Queretana. This implies the generation of job
opportunities for the future population while, at the same time,
protecting and regenerating the natural resources of the Sierra Gorda.
This rescue plan is also a work model which can be developed and
implemented in other regions of Mexico. This plan is comprised of three
programs:
environmental education.
Protection and regenration of forest resources
community improvement.
Each program is supported by an information component consisting
of videos, pamphlets, radio programs, community meetings and workshops.
The Grupo Ecologico has been responsible for the planting of 1.8 million
trees on 1500 plantations, the construction of 200 dry composting
latrines, the installation of 480 fuel-saving wood stoves and the
placement of more than 800 signs with environmental messages throughout
the Sierra Gorda. The Grupo Ecologico owns 600 hectares of protected
areas that provide shelter and protection to varied species of flora and
fauna.
PROGRAMS:
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION:
Objectives: to bring an agenda of environmental awareness to the
children and general public of the Sierra Gorda in an effort to raise
their collective and individual participation in order to face the
problems and bring solutions for them.
Activities and methods: this program is presented in a monthly
basis throughout the year in more than 150 schools in the Sierra Gorda,
reaching about 15 000 children. 10 group members visit the schools and
involve the children in activities such as cleaning of the schoolyard and
the whole community, planting and caring for trees, painting murals,
taking care of their own school garden, as well as leading discussions
aobut recycling, forest ecology, water cycles, protection of animals and
plants, etc.
The group has developed material designed to support this
program. The package consists of a booklet called "Nuestra Tierra" and
several audio tapes with songs, stories and games. These materials
provide an excellent model for other groups with similar purposes.
The program includes also activities with parents, such as puppet
shows, films, radio programs and the distribution of posters with
environmental messages.
EVALUATION: Each team member carries a notebook with the
particular lessons and activities for each school and reports back the
relevant issues related to that particular site, in order to know if the
school has been involved in activities such as additional treeplantings,
garden work, etc.
Currently, comments from each schoolteacher are being solicited
to know the opinons about the impact of this program in children's
behaviour.
Percentages which correspond to achieved objectives area also
recorded, helping to produce a monthly report to evaluate the progress.
FOREST RESOURCES PROTECTION AND REGENERATION PROGRAM
Objective: Reforesting of the Sierra Gorda region through
planting trees with commercial purposes, thereby leaving the remaining
untouched forest for wildlife refuge, allowing regeneration of flora and
fauna species.
Activities:
This program consists of planting 1000 hectares of deforested
land each year in 50 communities, hoping to increase this goal. More than
500 land owners coordinated by forestry promoters from the group
participate in this program.
The land owners receive saplings grown on state run nurseries.
The saplings are transported to the communities, along with fencing to
protect their plantation and are offered as support one third of the
labor required to do the reforestation.
The protection of wildlife is included in this program. The Grupo
Ecologico has worked to develop community vigilance networks designed to
report hunting, poaching and illegal capture of animals.
Evaluation:
Each year the supervisors of the program along with state
oficials monitor the process. At the end of each period, they conduct a
formal evaluation of each reforested area consisting in the number of
hectares reforested and the overall conditions of the plantation.
Experience has shown an 95 % survival rate of all trees planted, keeping
careful records of the number of tress distributed at the group's main
office.
INTEGRAL COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM.
Objective: Increase respect and protection of the environment ,
achieving sustainable self-sufficiency. To heal and strenghten the
natural community richness.
Activities and methods: This program, specially aimed at the
women of 17 communities, works to introduce and implement new and
appropiate techniques for better usage and caretaking of natural
resources.
This includes the construction of wood-saving stoves, dry
composting latrines, fruit dryers, the cleaning of street gutters and
public gardens, trash separation, etc. Group promoters travel often to
present workshops on subjects such as natural medicine, soy cooking (
using an extremely cost effective protein ), wheat gluten and nopal
cactus, planting and care of fruit trees and orchards, reforestation,
family health and benefits of organic gardening.
FUNDING:
Due to an extremely difficult economic crisis in the country, the
growth and plans of the Grupo Ecologico have been greatly reduced.
Government financial assitance diminished by more than 70 percent this
year. We are currently trying to lose as little forward momentum as
possible and are therefore turning to foreign foundations and
international and local development agencies which can help us.
The Grupo Ecologico is working toward autosufficiency: sale of
latrines and workshops of general eco-techniques, as well as an
ecotourism project of bird watching excursions which will begin soon. The
economic benefits obtained from these projects are specifically designed
towards the financing of our programs.
ORGANIZATION:
The group is comprised of a directing commitee, formed by a
president, vicepresident, secretary and treasurer since it was
constituted as a civil non-profit organization. This commitee along with
the coordinators of each program has periodical meetings for the planning
and decision making.
Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda.
Martha Ruiz Corzo
General Coordinator
Roberto Pedraza
President.
Juarez No.9
Jalpan de Serra, Queretaro.
C.P. 76340 Queretaro, Mexico.
Tel / Fax : ( 52 ) ( 429 ) 6 02 42
Rafael Alvarez Martinez
Technical Assistant
e-mail: c73sg@sunserver.uaq.mx