Country: Mexico

Organization: Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda I.A.P.

Year the initiative began: 1989

Project Website: www.sierragorda.net

Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions:

• Main barrier addressed: Lack of local input
• Main insight addressed: Develop community assets

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What is the goal of your innovation?
We seek to provide people with new livelihood alternatives which protect the geographic, natural, and cultural values of the region.

How does your approach support or embody geotourism?
Our eight ecotourism projects generate economic value from the scenic beauty and rural cultural heritage which attract visitors to the region, and strike a careful balance between economic development and conservation. The rich ecodiversity and natural beauty of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve arises from its steep and varied topography and its geographic location at the convergence of the neartic and neotropical bioregions. Ecotourism project development follows close collaboration with local communities, in which we train, organize, and empower people in ways that improve their understanding of natural resources, build their capacity, and improve their resource management. Local communities are the owners and operators of the tourist facilities, which are only one part of the much broader conservation and development strategy of the Sierra Gorda consortium. Within this larger project are diverse activities including environmental education, forest restoration and sanitation, all involving local communities and landowners. The synergy of this project constitutes a strong movement to preserve the biological, cultural, spiritual, and scenic integrity of these mountains.

Describe your approach in detial. How is it innovative?
Led by conservation activist, Ashoka Entrepreneur “Paty” Ruiz Corzo, the Sierra Gorda movement has become a veritable orchestra of development and conservation activities, demonstrating that grassroots work can achieve positive changes. This can only follow a long-standing presence of conservation work in the region, which has led to acceptance by the local communities and to their adoption of new practices and attitudes towards natural resources. The innovation is changing the manner in which natural resources are perceived and used. The Sierra Gorda has created an innovative, holistic model of protected area co-management, where the responsibilities of natural protected area management are shared between the federal government and local civil society. This strategy of conservation and development includes an array of activities, including community education, productive livelihood diversification, watershed restoration, and rural recycling, all within the larger project “Conservation of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve,” supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with the participation of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), and the local non-profit, Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG). This co-management model functions to empower local communities and com

What types of partnerships or professional developement would be most beneficial in spearding your innovation?
Boosting the promotion and sales of Sierra Gorda community ecotourism projects is essential to their success. In 2006, Sierra Gorda Ecotours received the Tourism for Tomorrow Award demonstrating that they are equipped with the necessary infrastructure to operate, and are trained in a diverse set of administration and service skills. However, some of the projects are still lacking a constant flow of clients. Thus the development of new alliances and partnerships outside of Mexico would be an especially important advance. We are developing low impact tourism that is respectful and provides a just profit for local communities.

In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Through alternative livelihood activities we work to shift our region´s development towards sustainable, low-impact use of natural resources

Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
Although our tourism project is relatively young, we already have eight community projects operating with the necessary facilities and equipment to receive international recognition. This marks an important achievement in itself. However, the principal achievement has been the involvement and participation of the local communities through adopting new productive livelihood abilities. Housewives and farmers that were previously dedicated to activities incompatible with conservation such as grazing livestock or harvesting timber are now involved in attending to tourism clients. Thus, participants´ activities have effectively improved their own economic status as well as protecting their local natural resources. This has been possible thanks to a long process of capacity building, using resources from a variety of institutions for the construction of and equipment for the facilities, and training the beneficiaries from the bottom up. The facilities are designed by small groups and each project has its own management program that considers carrying capacity. We closely monitor the activities of each group to assure that their environmental impact is minimal, track the demographics, involvement and incomes of participants, and periodically perform surveys to better understand the project´s benefits within the communities.

How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
Visitors interact in a direct manner with local people and share in the local community experience, as the projects are run entirely by community members in small, rural towns. Visitors are welcome to participate in other community projects (e.g. ceramics and carpentry studios), and therefore have direct access to local community life. Many visitors are guided by the local non-profit tourism operator Sierra Gorda Ecotours, which gives visitors an introduction to the reserve and its characteristics. Satisfaction is guaranteed by the high standards of local attractions, scenic beauty, and careful attention given by the personnel of the projects.

In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
In our case, community participation is the foundation and greatest strength not only of the tourism program but also for the conservation project as a whole. Each year more than 40,000 local people participate directly or indirectly in conservation actions (almost 50% of the population within the reserve), thus making the Sierra Gorda the natural protected area with the greatest social participation in conservation activities in Mexico. This is reflected in the tourism projects as in all cases the facilities are designed, owned and operated by the local communities and the earnings are entirely dedicated to that community.

Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?
From the beginning our project´s foundation has been environmental education and capacity building at all levels. Eighteen years later, we have a systematic approach that reaches 160 schools and 16,000 students, plus families, on a monthly basis. Our ecotourism projects are rooted in this educational approach, focusing on the conservation of natural resources, our cultural heritage, developing a sense of place, and giving value to the natural environment. We also have an excellent working relationship with the local authorities, who significantly contribute to the management of the area, as well as supporting and learning through the local tourism projects.

Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?
Apart from the obvious proposition of establishing an economy of conservation in the communities where these projects operate, this is an initiative that we hope will become, among other strategies, a mechanism of self-financing for conservation activities, through the operation of Sierra Gorda Ecotours (SGE) as a conservation business. SGE acts as the local operator, marketing and bringing groups of visitors to the tourism projects, supporting them in their guest services, assuring that they receive the best attention possible. We consider that given our close proximity to the United States, a strong potential market exists, and we are ready.

How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
This initiative has had a variety of partners and financers that have permitted us to complete construction of the facilities and to provide equipment and training for participants. Among these partners are Mexico´s Secretary of Tourism, the Commission for the Development of Indigenous Communities, and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas, whose financing has been vital for the communities and has been applied towards items like training, construction, and equipment for the eight projects. During 2007, Sierra Gorda Ecotours had an annual budget of $60,228 USD, of which over $50,000 was received from about 500 paying visitors. The group employees a staff of 3 full-time employees and 3 part-time employees whose salaries are paid with resources from the GEF grant as part of the project activities. The project earnings obviously constitute an unprecedented income for small communities in remote reaches of the Eastern Sier

What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
Our vision includes expanding our project by establishing more ecotourism projects in the SGBR. Once the eight existing projects have graduated and are completely self-sufficient, with low operating costs and just incomes for the beneficiaries, we will expand. Through the Sierra Gorda Earth Center we also offer a wide variety of training programs in sustainability topics at different levels. We have the capacity and interest to share our experience with other Natural Protected Areas, international networks, and community ecotourism projects, training them on this topic and others.

What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
A common problem in the productive livelihood diversification projects that we have developed in the SGBR, including tourism projects, is the loss of trained personnel due to the constant pressure to migrate to the United States. The mirage of easy money is one that undermines our ability to build capacity in construction and service skills. For this reason the number of women involved in our projects has been increasing, as women emigrate at a much lower rate. This is a positive way to build the strength of a group left unprotected in many cases by emigration. It has also been difficult to move the projects forward while relying on acquiring economic support from a variety of sources, as this is often a lengthy process. Our advances have depended on the availability of resources, which becomes more difficult now that the projects are ready to operate. Although the Sierra Gorda is a popular tourist destination given its natural and cultural attractions, especially its five Franciscan Missions from the XVIII century that were declared Cultural World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, we still haven´t found our niche in the market that provides us with a continuous flow of national and international clients.

What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.
Martha Isabel “Paty” Ruiz Corzo is the regional coordinator of the project. Formerly a music teacher, Ruiz co-founded the Grupo Ecológico along with her husband, Roberto Pedraza Muñoz, and a small group of neighbors; she became the first director of the organization. Following the decree of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in 1997, Ruiz was named by the president of Mexico as the federal director of the Reserve. She is the first director of a natural protected area in Mexico selected from the local civil society. In recognition of her innovative and entrepreneurial work, she has received the Rolex Award for Enterprise, is a Fellow of Ashoka and an Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Ruiz is responsible for overall coordination and management of the project and plays the lead role in inter-institutional coordination, fund raising and communications. From the beginning of its activities in 1989, when Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda started as a small local initiative, the leadership of Pati Ruiz Corzo has been fundamental to establishing and strengthening this strong social movement for conservation. After a long process of building the project and gaining visibility thanks to international recognition, in 2001 Ruiz achieved the approval for a full-scale Global Environment Facility (GEF) project. With a seed fund of 6.5 million dollars, this has been an unprecedented project in the history of natural resource conservation in Mexico. This also represents matching funds of 3 to 1, which Ruiz has done in a successful manner, and represents an investment of close to 31 million dollars dedicated to sustainable development in the Sierra Gorda bioregion. Thus Ruiz has established a successful model of co-management between civil society and the federal government with many replicable experiences worth sharing. The project of Biodiversity Conservation in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve is a combined project for sustainable development and biodiversity conservation in a marginalized area of Mexico. The project has numerous innovative components, including top leadership from the local civil society recognized internationally for entrepreneurship; multi-faceted project design and implementation; a model network of local, state, national and international partners, carbon sequestration for the voluntary market; and other programs of payments for environmental services under development. Also innovative is the establishment of conservation businesses, including a Center of Education and Training for Development using UNESCO-based curriculum to promote project replication in other parts of Mexico and Latin America. The seven-year project (2001-2007) utilizes clear objectively verifiable indicators of success and has already achieved improvements in indicators of sustainable development, biodiversity and reduction of threats to biodiversity. These achievements include increases in the income received by local residents from activities compatible with conservation, the number of communities and individuals participating in and benefiting from productive activities, the number of community committees formed, and the amount of public investment directed to sustainable development and conservation.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Making a drastic change in her life in 1984 when she and her husband left their life in the state capital to look for a simple life at one with nature in the mountains of the Sierra Gorda, Martha Isabel Ruiz Corzo found her niche by starting a forceful and effective project to safeguard the biological diversity of these mountains. The local communities have been the most important ally of the project. She is currently the Director of the SGBR, Regional Coordinator of the GEF Project and active member of various environmental organizations that are developing pioneering ecosystem products.

Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on teh competition homepage.
Set in the magnificent mountains of the Eastern Sierra Madre, and the most ecosystem-diverse natural protected area in Mexico, the Network of Ecotourist Lodges of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve offer you the opportunity to see the innumerable natural, cultural, and scenic attractions of the area. You will be attended by Sierra Gorda Ecotours, whose personnel will consult with you to design the package that best suits your interests, and whose profits finance conservation activities in the region. We have eight distinct projects that include treasures like the last colony of green macaws in the impressive sinkhole Sótano de Barro, temperate and cloud forests in La Tinidad, La Arenita and San Juan each with endemic birds and kilometers of hiking trails, the magnificent views from Cuatro Palos and the impressive waterfall and cavern of Río Escanela. Each site has unique rural flavor because it is owned and operated by the local community. Our mission is to facilitate your discovery of the natural beauty and the local communities of the Sierra Gorda though ecotourism services which promote observation, learning, and participation in conservation. In 2006 we received the Tourism for Tomorrow Award given by the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Contact Information
Mr. Roberto Pedraza
Technical Officer
Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda I.A.P.
Carlos Septien Garcia #46 Colonia Cimatario, Queretaro, Qro.
pedraza_roberto@yahoo.com