Protecting Wild Cat Habitat

These last three months we proceeded to identify potential properties for purchase. Due to the ilegal logging which has been unstoppable in the immediate vicinity of the reserve known as Cerro Prieto-Cerro la Luz, we decided to approach World Land Trust, our British partner, to acquire the property of Mr. Isidro Ruiz Servin, with a surface area of 65 hectares and thereby amplify the reserve to protect it from the logging.

All of the reserves have continued to benefit from the constant presence of the park guardians (Leonel Espino, Abel Resendiz, Emiliano Cardenas, Taurino Castillo) and their supervisor Miguel Flores and occassionally Roberto Pedraza. In the reserves that have been purchased for strict protection, there is no ilegal logging or other extraction. We observed a minimal presence of cattle in two of them (Canon del Fresno and Cerro Prieto-Cerro La Luz); in the first for a fence that has since been repaired and in the second a lack of fencing. Given a fence would be a major expense and would have a negative impact on the forest, we visited the neighboring properties to give an ultimatum and were accompanied by the local authorities. If the cattle are encountered again, we will round them up and hold them and involve the authorities formally.

The following reserves in our care have had maintenance to trails and additional handiwork: Arenitas, San Francisco, La Tinaja, Canon del Fresno, Tinaja del Zapote, Hoya Verde, Mesa Colorada, Socabon and El Naranjito, and the buffer zones that protect them, accounting for a total of 46.1 kilometers. The fence maintenance in the reserves Canon del Fresno and la Hoya del Hielo, in addition to the major reparation to the perimeter fence of the reserve Mesa Colorada, including installing fence posts of steel which was financed in part by the donation received here in Global Giving to protect vital habitat.

And we had the enormous pleasure to obtain images in the camera traps of puma and jaguar, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the conservation activities within these private reserves within the greater Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. The images come from the reserves La Tinaja and Las Arenitas.

Links:

• Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda