Our facilities were the venue for a high level workshop with educational authorities from the Sierra Gorda and Querétaro state, seeking to capitalize on the diploma course “Didactic tools for climate action” to train more teachers. GESG´s diploma course is taught in coordination with the distinguished university Tec de Monterrey, where more than 450 educators have graduated from previous generations.  In their own words, it has had a high impact and has changed the way they perceive their environment and the effects of climate change.

We had the pleasure of conducting a monitoring tour in the forest of Don Inocente Zúñiga, in the municipality of Pinal de Amoles, beneficiary of the SEDESU Querétaro Low Emission Seal and who has already received economic compensation for his conservation and CO2 capture. As layed out in the agreement with the GESG, we are verifying the effective protection of all the benefited properties. It is a pleasure to see the excellent condition of these forests, free from the siege of legal and illegal logging and therefore a magnificent water sponge in the headwaters of the Ayutla River basin, whose water flow is critical for those who live in the highlands as it´s resource is now what we all depend on. With the severe drought we are experiencing, its protection is vital!

In the Sierra Gorda, we have populations of three species of pygmy owls. In its jungles, the Lowland Tecolote (Glaucidium brasilianum) is lord of the night, hunting insects and common even in gardens and plazas. The Tamaulipan Tecolote (Glaucidium sanchezi), endemic to northeastern Mexico, is found in cloud forests and was only recorded last year in Querétaro by our photographer, Roberto Pedraza, in one of the reserves we protect. And finally, Roberto was able to photograph the Serrano Tecolote (Glaucidium gnoma) an inhabitant of temperate forests, and in this case with safe refuge thanks to the carbon payments of the Querétaro Seal to its owner, and therefore under conservation. The surrounding forests under incessant illegal logging, plus legal logging, are being severely degraded and with it the habitat of many other species.

Excited to share with you an extraordinary collaboration! The talented artist and painter Santiago Boldó joined us once again to fill the Sierra Gorda with life and color through incredible murals with key messages about biodiversity, caring for the environment and the transformative power of art in communication. First, the murals he installed on the exterior wallts of an elementary school in Pinal de Amoles along the main highway, and now above the bleachers of the main soccer field in Jalpan de Serra. Santiago´s art and conservation messages will reach a wide range of people.
These murals are not only visually stunning, but also remind us of the importance of protecting this magical place we call home.

“I am sure that from this crisis better human beings will emerge who will leave their selfish universes, and we will share this abundance.” -Mr. Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo.
The vision of our leader, Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo, to preserve, protect and regenerate the biodiversity of the Sierra Gorda, has integrated a unique community for 36 years, in which knowledge is cultivated with local environmental education programs and models are formed based on local conservation practices with global projection for carbon reduction that create great hope for the regeneration of the natural landscape.
This vision and mission of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda has been awarded with the distinction of Grand Prize in the 2022 Sustainability Storytelling Competition awarded by GLP Films.

I was fortunate to find in one of the reserves we protect this magnificent male Silver-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis), the largest remaining species of woodpecker in Mexico, since the Imperial, which was endemic and the largest in the world, was killed off by loggers and forest management in the Sierra Madre Occidental a few decades ago. To a lesser extent, this magnificent bird also depends on mature and dead standing trees and is therefore rare in the Sierra Gorda. Always a joy to encounter.