Conservation programs

Pronatura Veracruz runs 4 conservation programs:

Veracruz River of Raptors.
The goals of this program are:

• Long term conservation of migratory raptor populations and their habitats, currently through monitoring strategies.
• Outreach and education of local communities within the raptor migration route about the importance and conservation of raptors and their habitats.

Central Veracruz is the main flyway in the world for raptor migration, every year an average of five million raptors are registered by our staff in two monitoring stations. This program has been running for 11 years, and it constitutes the longest term monitoring study of migratory raptors in Latin America. We also run a raptor banding station in the coast of Central Veracruz to provide additional data about raptor ecology. The education component includes a 12 week program at two community elementary schools that has been running for 5 years, environmental education workshops for teachers, and conferences and day trips for children. We also run a fundraising program where we guide and provide tourism services related to the Veracruz River of Raptors concept that results in an average profit of 7,000 USD for the organization every year.

Wetlands Conservation.
The goals of this program are:

• To promote conservation of large areas of wetlands.
• Reduce the impact of human activities on the wetland systems through alternatives of sustainable use of resources.
• Build environmental awareness and achieve a change in attitudes in the local community of Alvarado wetlands about conservation of the manatee and its habitat.

We have been working in Alvarado for the past 5 years. We have been running a passerine banding station since 1999, having banded approximately 5,000 birds. We run an environmental education program in elementary schools of rural communities both working with children as well as with teachers. More than 100 teachers have participated in our workshops. We have also run, along with the University of Veracruz, some community development programs with fishermen from three different communities.

Conservation of the Selva Zoque.
The goals of this program are:

• To develop a local and regional process for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development of Uxpanapa and the Selva Zoque, promoting and facilitating the articulate convergence of different organizations and community group initiatives around strategic actions
• Sustainable use of natural resources through direct community work.

The Selva Zoque is one of the largest tracts of rainforest in Mexico. It provides a unique challenge and opportunity since it has a piece in three different states: Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz, the three most biologically diverse states, and ironically the three poorest states in Mexico. For the past year Pronatura has been coordinating all the different institutions that work at the Selva Zoque, first, to jointly build a common geographic information system (GIS) that includes all the biological, physical, political and social-economical information. Second, to use that GIS as a basis, identifying each organization’s unique niche and common ground to have more efficient actions. And third, to work jointly for the sustainable development of the area. We have finished the GIS and we are now facilitating meetings to build a common vision and identify and coordinate each organization’s activities. Before this effort we worked with “campesinos” in the production of ixtle, a natural fiber that grows within the forest and produces a high priced fiber used for arts and crafts.

The Coastal Planning Project
The Coastal Planning Project (Proyecto de Planeación Costera de Veracruz) is a special project of Pronatura Veracruz that will be focused on the coastal zone of the state of Veracruz. In this sense it is important to recognize that the coastal zone of the state of Veracruz contains a complex mosaic of landscapes (beaches, mangroves, marine fields, dunes, coastal lagoons, estuaries, floating and submerged aquatic vegetation, agricultural and cattle-ranching landscapes, etc.).