Project Partner Organisation: Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda www.sierragorda.net Contact GESG

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Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in Mexico

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Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
Grupo Ecologica Sierra Gorda
Biodiversity
Threats
WLT Involvement
More Information

Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve

WLT is pleased to announce a new partnership with an NGO in Mexico. Grupo Ecologica Sierra Gorda (GESG) are based in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, in the state of Queretaro. They were formed in 1987 by a group of concerned local residents and it was through their campaigning that Sierra Gorda was given Biosphere Reserve status by the Mexican Government, in 1997.

Grupo Ecologica Sierra Gorda

WLT first met with the GESG at the symposium 'Land purchase as an Intervention Strategy for Biodiversity Conservation' held in Holland last autumn, hosted jointly by WLT and IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands. (www.landpurchase.org). GESG Technical Officer, Roberto Pedraza Ruiz, attended the meeting and discussions began about how WLT and GESG could work effectively together. A site visit was made by Kirsty Burgess, WLT's Conservation Programmes Manager, and Roger Wilson (WLT's Restoration Ecology Technical Expert) to look at potential projects and it was agreed that there was a great deal of conservation potential, particularly relating to WLT's restoration ecology activities, funded by the Carbon Balanced programme.

Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

GESG are co-managers (jointly with the Government) of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve (SGBR), located in the state of Queretaro, in central Mexico. Covering 947,794 acres (383,567 ha), SGBR is recognised as being the most ecologically diverse of all the natural protected areas in Mexico due to its location at the meeting point of two bio-regions - the Nearctic from the north and the Neotropical from the south. The altitudinal range goes from 300 - 3,100m protecting a wide range of species and its rainfall varies from 350mm - 2000mm, depending on the season.

Biodiversity

The ecological diversity of Sierra Gorda is illustrated by its 15 types of vegetation including evergreen and deciduous tropical forest, small spiny shrubs and cacti, oak forests, pine forests and cloud forests. 2,300 species of vascular plants have been recorded within the reserve, including Douglas Fir, Quaking Aspen, Ceiba, Mayan Breadnut, Tree Cholla, Elm, Giant Barrel Cactus, Chapote, and Peyote. Sierra Gorda is the country's richest area for mammal diversity with 131 recorded species including all six cats found in Mexico (Jaguar, Puma, Bobcat, Margay, Ocelot and Jaguarundi) Black Bear, River Otter, Porcupine, Kinkajou, Queretaro Pocket Gopher. There have been 327 species of birds recorded including Military Macaw, Great Curassow, Peregrine Falcon, Bearded Wood-Partridge and the Maroon-fronted Parrot.

Thick forest cover in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve

Threats

Like many protected areas worldwide, much of the land inside the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve boundaries remains under private ownership and is threatened by cattle ranching, slash and burn forest clearance, inefficient agricultural practices leading to soil erosion, illegal hunting and timber extraction. Mining and its associated pollution, together with urban sprawl are also significant.

WLT involvment

WLT's current work with GESG includes the recent purchase of 480 acres (200 ha) of land with high biodiversity value within the reserve to create a wildlife corridor between two protected areas. WLT is also carrying out its carbon balancing objectives where we are funding reforestation and assisted natural regeneration of degraded agricultural land by indigenous plant species. For more information on the Carbon Balanced programme, see our sister site www.carbonbalanced.org.

More information

• Project updates
• External link: Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda