Protecting Wild Cat Habitat

There is a human facet to the natural landscape: that of hundreds of people that benefit from the environmental service payments and donations by people and companies that want to support biodiversity conservation.

Marcelina and Hermilo are two outstanding examples of the human side that live within the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve and whose way of living has changed in the last years thanks to the program to recuperate the understory of old standing oak forest.

Marcelina (54 years old, owner of the property known as "La Parada Cerro", La Esperanza, Jalpan de Serra, 100 hectares) is the proud owner of one of the old oak forests in the Sierra Gorda. Now a widow, she lives with her two daughters, her grandchildren and her mother.

When her husband was alive, they made a living rearing livestock. If a family member fell ill, they would sell calves to cover the costs of care.

However the family entered into a crisis when Marcelina’s husband migrated to the United States and died soon afterwards. She tried to continue with the livestock, but it was not possible.

With less rainfall there was less food available for the animals, which fell ill more frequently, and there was no money to pay for a vet. Other times there were very few buyers, or they wanted to pay a very low price for the cattle. Marcelina tried to create more enclosures for her livestock, so she deforested more of the forest and destroyed areas with a high biological value.

Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda offered her payments for environmental services in exchange for her taking out the livestock so that the forest could recuperate. In this way, Marcelina decided to dedicate part of her land for cattle and dedicate 100 hectares as a private reserve. Now her forest is much improved. Where the livestock would trample before, the forest is now so dense that it is difficult to walk through.

Marcelina feels calm seeing the improvements in her land and for having had the opportunity to create a living thanks to its protection. “I am very happy to see my land conserved and with many animals in the countryside, but I also need continuing economic support, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do it alone,” she states.

Hermilo (76 years old, “Hoya la Ciénaga", Lagunita San Diego, Landa de Matamoros, 100 hectares) is a forest proprietor and lives with his wife, Nicanora Servin. Before being part of the environmental services payment program, he and his family lived from agriculture, livestock; they processed the local agave lechuguilla and made natural rope from the fibers.

But with the increase in the use of plastic, the demand for these artisanal products fell and the family ended up in poverty.

After a while, when the road was built to their isolated community, they began to sell timber. However, in recent years the trees were affected by the bark beetle infestations. “Selling the infested wood was not a good business; the only ones who can make a living are those that mark out the trees to be cut,” says Hermilo.

When the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve was created, they began to receive support for caring for the forest. Now, for protecting the forests they receive an income which they live from. The state government and other donors, through the Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda, support Hermilo’s family and other rural landowners in exchange for not logging the old standing forest and excluding their livestock, and withdrawing any other agricultural activities from the forest.

“We know that in the forest there is life and, if we want water and cool weather, clean air and little animals in the forest, we have to care for our forest. The tree is the man’s best friend” he says.

Twenty six days after having installed three camera traps in Grupo Ecológico’s Private Reserve Number 1 we went to collect them to see what they had captured. And we were very pleased with the results.

A puma, a Temazate deer and a collared peccary – the wild boar species native to this area of Mexico – appeared in the recordings both in pictures and videos.

For Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, these are the clearest and indisputable signs that conservation is achieved by eliminating human influence from wild places. Only then will wildlife be able to re-colonize what people took from them: their home.

You can see the video here.