Global Citizen invited Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda to set up an activation at Coldplay’s concerts in Mexico City on April 3, 4, 6 and 7. The British band asked Global Citizen to find local grassroots organizations and activists doing outstanding work in each city they visit during their Music of the Spheres world tour.

Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo, Director of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda I.A.P. was recognized last year as a Mexican Hero by Global Citizen. Global Citizen invited us to have a space at Foro Sol to talk to fans about our work to protect the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.

Coldplay is committed to a carbon neutral tour, their main commitments are to measure, reduce, mitigate and capture CO2. Their concerts are powered by entirely renewable energy, generated by solar installations, used cooking oil, a kinetic stadium floor and electric bicycles that generate electricity that fans can use to actively charge the show’s battery. Learn more at https://sustainability.coldplay.com/

Thanks to our partners Paruno, S&P Global, ATMEX and Earth Life University for volunteering during the 4-day concert.

This March we started our Training Course for New Beekeepers in Embocadero, Jalpan de Serra, taught by Don Leopoldo Morán, a beekeeping technician from the Sierra Gorda region.  We received  20 participants from different localities of Jalpan de Serra, Arroyo Seco and Pinal de Amoles interested in starting beekeeping activities in the region and in learning the relevant topics for the establishment of their apiary.

As part of World Water Day, we convened the Water Forum, with the participation of 47 high school students from the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro and the Universidad Tecnológica de San Juan del Río, Jalpan unit, as well as 10 students who attended virtually.

The agenda included an environmental sensitization by our Director, Pati Ruiz Corzo, a talk on the Zero Garbage campaign by Prof. Olivia Pérez Jiménez,  an explanation of the payment for ecosystem services program by Salvador Sarabia, a tour of the biodiversity of the Biosphere Reserve by photographer Roberto Pedraza Ruiz, and an exhibition on eco-technologies and the relationship between water and the forest presented by the Comisión Estatal de Aguas (CEA, Qro), Brenda Cárdenas Alvarado and geographer Sergio Octavio Beltrán.

We had the pleasure of visiting our valued partners of La Trinidad, in the municipality of Xilitla, S.L.P., a Náhuatl community with whom we have a long-standing working relationship. The meeting served to renew their signage, improve the equipment of their cabins, deliver uniforms, and to gather footage and interviews to promote their cabins. The community is a beneficiary of the “Biodiverse Carbon in Xilitla, S.L.P.” project in which  with the support of the World Land Trust, we are implementing and protecting 800 hectares of temperate and cloud forests in their Ejido, out of a total of 3020 in that area.

Maintaining contact and interaction with our partners is essential to fulfill our commitments on both sides.