NCI Commemorates Expanded Partnership with Mexico’s National Park Service
04/13/2016
NCI’s Lydia Lozano with CONANP officials.
In anticipation of Earth Day on April 22nd, Nature and Culture International’s team in Mexico celebrated their renewed partnership with CONANP, Mexico’s National Park Service, which began in 2013 and has now grown to encompass the entire northwest region of Sonora and Sinaloa. Through this collaboration, NCI-Mexico is working to preserve key habitats that have been identified by CONANP as top conservation priorities due to their wealth of species and important role in sustaining the regions’ water supply.
NCI-Mexico’s work focuses on the highland areas on the slopes of the Sierra Madre mountain range, where the Sierra Madre Biological Corridor initiative is being implemented by NCI in collaboration with CONANP and an alliance of NGOs. NCI also collaborates with CONANP on the protection of Sonora and Sinaloa’s globally-important wetlands, which are designated RAMSAR sites. NCI-Mexico’s work extends beyond its collaboration with CONANP to sites that, while not under CONANP’s jurisdiction, are critical to the connectivity of protected areas between Sonora and Sinaloa.
NCI began its work in Alamos, Mexico in 2004 through the creation of Monte Mojino, a private reserve that now spans over 15,000 acres of tropical deciduous forest habitat, which provides a safe haven for keystone species including the jaguar as well as migratory birds of global importance.
This celebration recognized the progress that has been made toward preserving Mexico’s natural beauty and resources, while kicking off another year of close work between NCI and CONANP. Present at the celebration were Lydia Lozano, Coordinator of NCI-Mexico; Carlos Castillo Sánchez, Director of the Northwest Region of CONANP; and Congresswoman Ana Luisa Valdes, Secretariat of the Committee on Energy, Environment and Climate Change; as well as other officials from the three levels of government, academia, private sector and civil society organizations.
Through this partnership, NCI-Mexico and CONANP are addressing pressing threats to the environment and acting to preserve habitats that are key to the survival of species, as well as the health and economic wellbeing of local people.
