Sierra Gorda

Prize Finalist 2008

Organisation name

Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda (GESG)

Financial resources

Annual income USD$ 1,295,567

Geographical focus

Latin America & Caribbean

Issue focus

Environment, education, development, conservation.

Key achievements

• The greatest number of activities for a sustainable development project, with 167 lines of action;
• Participation of about 56,000 people, with 95.3% of the surveyed inhabitants having stated that they cooperate with Sierra Gorda;
• Visibility and global recognition for Sierra Gorda;
• Opening of the Earth Center Sierra Gorda - a sustainable training center - as a strategy for the replication of all of their successful experiences.

Mission

The Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda (GESG) aims to protect the natural resources, promote the sustainable development of the Sierra Gorda region and support replication in other areas through a collaborative effort among national and international citizens and institutions.
GESG strives to pursue sustainable development through all types of educational activities and promotion, such as actions related to the restoration and conservation of the environment, natural resources and biodiversity, community development, environmental sanitation and productive diversification.

Background

GESG emerged in 1987 from the concerns of a small group of local citizens worried about the rapid depletion of the natural resources of the Sierra Gorda and the urgent need to carry out recycling, reforestation and environmental education tasks.

GESG were tasked with the protection of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in 1997. Further success led to the approval in 2000 of an ambitious seven-year full size project (2001-2007) - Biodiversity Conservation in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve - financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Management

The GESG organisation has a System of Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation in which community groups evaluate the projects developed in their own communities. They also have business plans designed by PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants for its conservation businesses.

The UNDP conducts external evaluations of the work every three years, as well as annual financial and fiscal audits.

Partnerships

The GESG has formal co-management responsibilities for the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, established by written agreement with CONANP, making the Reserve the first natural protected area in the country to be managed by different parties.

The vision of the Sierra Gorda Consortium is that the inhabitants of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, and representatives of the three levels of government and their agencies operating within the Reserve, value the natural infrastructure of the Reserve and act to preserve and enhance those values.  There will be strong inter-institutional coordination, with government agencies committed to conservation and developing projects.

Impact Achieved

Since 2002, the Sierra Gorda Consortium has organized, trained and raised funds for infrastructure, equipment, production and commercialization of products and services for 25 pilot community initiatives with the purpose of changing local productive livelihoods to diminish pressure on ecosystems.  The projects include embroidery, ceramics and woodcrafts, honey production and preserved food, a hunting ranch, intensive stockbreeding and community ecotourism.  The products produced by these activities are now being offered in the markets and there is potential for replication in other areas. 

Since 2003 the consortium has assisted landowners seeking funding for conservation activities through the National Forestry Commission programs of Payments for Environmental Services of Hydrology and Biodiversity.  $4,557,909.82 US has been approved for 1,349 beneficiaries on 32,859 hectares. 

From their ability to produce and use data, the consortium has generated pioneering information to carry out the economic valuation of the natural infrastructure of the Sierra Gorda.

Contact

For further information please contact Marco Acevedo
Email: marco.gesr@gmail.com, gesgiap@prodigy.net.mx