Xel-Ha Blog

Ejido La Flor, Municipality of Mapimí, Durango-. As part of the Nature Conservancy Day, and to close the 5th Conservancy Week, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico (SEMARNAT) and the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP) carried out the sixth edition of the Nature Conservancy Awards, in the following categories: academic, individual, civil and business society, and local authorities.

Xel-Há Park won an honorable mention in the business category called Nezhualcóyotl, after the Mexican king, poet and nature lover. Elizabeth Lugo Monjarrás, General Manager of Xel-Há, received the award from Lic. José Luis Luege Tamargo, Secretary of Environment. The ceremony was also attended by Lic. Ismael Hernández Deras, Governor of the state of Durango, and Dr. Ernesto Enkerlin, President of the CONANP. Both of them recognized the hard work that Xel-Há has carried out to restore the ecosystem of its inlet, retrieving the natural beauty and health that was lost due to inadequate tourist exploitation. They also praised Xel-Há’s contributions in favor of the pink conch (Strombus Gigas) and sea turtles, as well as the financed study of the hydrological system of its inlet by important academic institutions such as the Geology Instutute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Water Network of the Mexican Science Academy and the Yucatan Scientific Research Center, CICY.

The Mapimí Biosphere Reserve in the state of Durango is a desert area and the first protected natural reserve in Latin America, but it is also famous for being a “silence zone”. It was a spectacular setting for the 2006 Nature Conservancy Awards ceremony, attended by local communal land farmers (guardians of the area), government authorities from the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora and by the federal government, who all agreed on the importance of such awards. According to Dr. Enkerlin, from CONANP, thee recognitions are the “Conservation Academy Awards” that acknowledge the contribution of individuals, government institutions, civil society and companies to a task that is of importance to everybody.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Awards and acknowledgements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.