With large doses of persistence and focusing on her goal, Martha Isabel “Pati” Ruiz Corzo has implemented a model of participatory conservation that involves multiple actors at every level. For 31 years, she has led the civil movement for safeguarding an area of 383,567 hectares that houses 638 communities and benefits Mexico and the world. Recovering 16,000 hectares of forests through natural regeneration has resulted in conservation of vital ecosystem services for flora, fauna and for the wellbeing of the local communities.
Under her leadership, Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda I.A.P. has adapted best tools for climate change mitigation and poverty reduction that can be implemented in the local context and has achieved a valuation of ecosystem services and scenic beauty that are now the pillars for the development of this conservation economy model. GESGIAP has been regenerating, conserving, processing knowledge, and developing tools for replication in other states of the country and opportunities for social development.
GESGIAP operates a symphony of sustainable activities as an ongoing experience within the local communities, mobilizing and motivating citizens, generating environmental governance from the bottom up, and linking conservation and development of the reserve’s numerous communities that live in extreme poverty.
Effective fundraising from the public and private sectors has resulted in 329 million pesos invested in the area in the last 10 years.
