BGCI has successfully partnered with CONANP to broaden public awareness of the conservation importance of an area of old growth forest in the cloud forests of Oaxaca, Mexico.

CONANP (La Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas), the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas in Mexico, currently manages 173 natural areas under federal management representing more than 25, 250.963 hectares. These protected areas were created by a Presidential order and the management, regulation, and use of these these areas are set in accordance with the General Act of Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection.

Abby Meyer, BGCI-US Executive Director, worked with U.S. board members Robert Patterson and Jesus Antonio Ramirez Guerrero (the Director of CONANP in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec area of Mexico) to prepare and install four signs in Spanish announcing the protected status and other important facts about the El Reten area of the Sierra Chimalapas. The Chimalapas are a mountain range with old growth forest within cloud forest and rain forest including many rare and protected orchids, Burseras, Magnolias, Oaks and other plants and animals.

Thumbnail image: CONANP partners installing signs in Oaxaca, Mexico.