Developing Beyond Sustainability

Viva Sierra Gorda is an advocacy and networking organization whose mission is to raise awareness, build networks, and support social and economic development for the conservation and long-term sustainability of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico.  In the region of Sierra Gorda, three civil organizations and the federal authority of the region partner to synchronize resources, mobilize civil participation and involve the various public sectors towards a common goal of regional sustainable development for the mid and longterm.  20 years on, the local civil movement has proven the success of integrating a comprehensive strategy of community-based conservation operated by local organizations who specialize in education, community organizing, alternative technologies, recycling, socio-economic development specifically with women, sustainable forestry management, payments for environmental services to extreme poverty landowners, purchase of lands for strict conservation, the restoration of 42 micro watersheds, micro-enterprise development and commercialization, and ecotourism in 8ecolodges owned and run by local community members.
Viva Sierra Gorda is the gateway to another reality in the rural mountains of Central Mexico; a new paradigm of regionwide participation for the management of the most ecosystem-diverse natural protected area in the country.  The lessons learned here apply to other protected areas as well as rural communities, high biodiversity and extreme poverty conditions.  Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda IAP is the founding local organization (1989) that still drives the regionwide civil conservation movement. The diversity of  proven experience and methodologies is currently being developed as curriculum for the training center located in the heart of the SIerra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, called Sierra Gorda Earth Center (Centro Tierra Sierra Gorda).  To guarantee a world class ecotourism route in the region, Sierra Gorda Ecotours provides tourists with itineraries to greet nature and benefit  the community-owned and operated ecolodges.  To conglomerate the micro-enterprises underway in the Sierra Gorda, Productos Sierra Gorda is a seal of quality and commitment to the principles of sustainable development and community management of natural resources.  Bosque Sustenable A.C. is the local partner dedicated to providing technical assistance and accompaniment with a range of services including environmental services payments (carbon, water, biodiversity and poverty alleviation) to benefit local landowners, sustainable forestry management and watershed restoration. And to create private reserves registered in the protection of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas of Mexico, we work with Joya del Hielo A.C. to purchase lands for strict conservation.

Viva Sierra Gorda.