Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda
MEXICO - The mission of Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda (GESG) is to conserve the natural resources and promote the sustainable development of the Sierra Gorda through the uniting of citizen and institutional efforts. Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda (GESG) was founded in 1987 by a group of Sierra citizens driven by the desire to respond to the regions environmental, social and economic problems. There is a lot to conserve, as Mexico ranks fifth worldwide for plants, fourth for amphibians, second for mammals and second for reptiles. In the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve we aim to protect this amazing biodiversity. We define sustainable development as the enduring improvement of the conditions of life of the population, with a rational use of the natural resources that assures their permanence for future generations.
The Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve is located in eastern central Mexico with a total surface of 383,567 hectares. The Reserve has 11 core zones of 24,803 hectares and a buffer zone of 358,764 hectares. Because of its location in a transition zone between two bio-geographical regions in Mexico, the Reserve harbours 15 types of vegetation, thus constituting the richest natural protected area in the country in terms of ecosystem diversity. Although the flora inventory of the Reserve has not yet been completed, approximately 2,308 plant species and 124 fungi species have been reported so far, many of them endemic. Fauna reports in the Reserve identify 548 vertebrate species to date, with 327 birds, 131 mammals, 71 reptiles, and 23 amphibians. It holds around 30 percent of the countrys Lepidoptera species. As with flora, many of these species are now under some kind of protection (jaguar, Humboldt butterfly, black bear and military macaw).
Although it occupies only 1.4% of the worlds land surface, Mexico contains 10% of known species worldwide, many of which are endemic, making Mexico one of the most mega-diverse countries. Mexico harbours almost all the natural landscapes of the world, from deserts to exuberant tropical forests, from tropical scrublands to highlands with almost perpetual snows. It shelters the greatest number of species of pines and cacti in the world and is one of the five centers of origin of cultivated edible plants, including corn, beans and vanilla, among many others.
All projects from this organization
Jaguar Monitoring Project
The Jaguar is the largest cat on the American continents and the third largest cat worldwide. Its distribution spreads from Northern Mexico to Northern Argentina. The Sierra Gorda forms part of the range of the Jaguar population of northeast Mexico, ...
Lands for Conservation Project
The Lands for Conservation project includes two lines of action:
1) Outright purchase of lands for their strict conservation as private nature reserves, and
2) Payments for environmental services which serve as a way to compensate the ...
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