Education to Protect our Natural Heritage

The Localize Mexico project was presented to the educational authorities in September 2014. 18 teachers of the UAQ (Autonomous University of Queretaro), the UTSJR (Technlogical University of San Juan del Rio, Jalpan Campus; the ENEQ (The Normal School of Queretaro State Jalpan Headquarters, as well as the USEBEQ staff. These institutions in turn organized a second presentation to twenty selected students. Six students completed the whole process of Localiza, all from the Queretaro State Normal School of Queretaro.

In October of that same year, Douglas Gayeton who founded the Lexicon of Sustainability came to the Sierra Gorda, to introduce the concept and carry out a hands on training in composing the photographs into dynamic pictures informing the viewer with the key terms and concepts that are artistically creative. The practice session helped explain the methodology and resolve questions and took place in one of the roadside restaurants along the Sierra Gorda Flavor Trail; Doña Mari lent her skills and unique location with a view over the steep Huamazontla slope.

We work with María José Olivares in the Localiza headquarters in Guadalajara (the Mexican branch of Lexicon of Sustainability) to apply the methodology locally, answer the doubts and technical support from the Lexicon resources available in Spanish. Lexicon and Sierra Gorda are formally collaborating towards an adapted version of the curriculum for the rural school systems where we work. Sierra Gorda boasts six graduates (some who paired up) of the first generation whose works included:

-        Two works about organic gardens and vegetables in the Agua Fria community, Pinal de Amoles county.

-        One about the local microenterprise, The Ecological House, in Acatitlan del Rio, Jalpan de Serra county.

-        One about the local microenterprise run by women who transform local produce into 100% natural foodstuffs, in Concá, Arroyo Seco county seat.

The program included talks about sustainable food systems and soil regeneration taking place in Sierra Gorda Mexico and they made various fieldtrips to the ongoing projects to interview and continue researching how to display these terms through images and short texts.

Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda is preparing for the new school term in 2015 by working with the staff of the following institutions: UTSJR, EMSAD#3 in Concá, EMSAD Arroyo Seco, the CBTA and the University of the Ciudad del Maíz, in San Luis Potosí state.

This is a living project that gives youth the tools to learn how to identify and communicate the local best practices in healthy food and soil systems and sustainable rural livelihoods.

One of the activities supported by this campaign is the Holistic Management Diploma course held at the Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda, an official Savory Institute Hub. The objective is to educate and train 20 Holistic Management instructors in the center and north of Mexico with the best practices to achieve the reversal of the desertification process, droughts, flooding, erosion and diseases as well as the loss of biodiversity. A proven methodology with the “how to´s” of land management that heals and regenerates the soil to combat climate change.

Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda has become a laboratory of sustainable practices, promoting the regeneration of agricultural soils at their headquarters in Jalpan De Serra, Queretaro State.

After the students learn to identify four processes within their ecosystem (community dynamics, water cycle, nutrient cycle, solar energy) their mindset and processes change. Working towards regenerative management means caring for and monitoring the soil.

A package of regenerative practice are offered to the students, such as the reintroduction of minerals to return biological productivity to the soil, bio fertilizers and landscape planning for water using the Keyline Design tools.

Skills in pasture and herd management are key in order to achieve faster water and carbon capture, as well as to enrich the soils and fight food insufficiency. This is also achieved through training in biointensive vegetable gardens, permaculture and how to eat healthy and prevent illness.

There will be four classroom sessions throughout the year to reunite the students and exchange the lessons learned in the context of their own communities and ecosystems.

Links:

• Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda