New Environmental Educational Program in the Ajos-Bavispe Reserve

By José María Martínez R.

Ajos-Bavispe National Forest Reserve and Wildlife Refuge, managed by Mexico’s Commission of Natural Protected Areas and located in the Northeast part of the State of Sonora, has just launched an environmental educational program for the communities that thrive in and around the reserve.

The program will be divided into two thematic regions: the first one focuses on the Mexican part of the San Pedro river basin, and the second on the Sky Islands that are part of the reserve. In order to develop a program that fully serves the specific education needs of the region and that helps attain the conservation goals of the reserve, the program managers started by surveying the state of the ecosystem and defining the main environmental problems, as part of the creation of a regional map of priorities.  This was followed by a study to identify social change agents and analyze the current state of environmental education in the region, in order to explore what is already available in the region and define the main educational needs for the reserve. The study will result in the creation of a database for the whole Ajos-Bavispe region.

Among the actions to take place in the near future, the reserve is planning an environmental education workshop in September, to take place in Moctezuma, Sonora. The workshop will be targeted to elementary school teachers in the Forest Reserve area of influence. If you want to get involved, either has an instructor or as a participant, or if you wish to have more information about the database, please send a message to ajosbavispe@yahoo.com or call (66 22) 122-236 and (66 22) 139-625 in Hermosillo, Sonora, México.