Conservation Science Symposium25 - 27 May 2011. Loreto, BCS, Mexico http://conservationscience.com.mx/
Kobelkowsky_#702_Community Involvement
Abstract ID: 4369 Type: Poster Subject: Community Involvement in Science and Conservation Submitted By: Rebeca Kobelkowsky Sosa (
[email protected])
LA CONSERVACION PRIVADA EN LAS ÁREAS NATURALES PROTEGIDAS, UN ESTUDIO DE CASO EN GUERRERO NEGRO Rebeca Kobelkowsky Sosa1, Edgardo Maya Martínez2and Crisóforo Maya Abarca3 1
2
Meyibó Desarrollo Integral, Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, México Meyibó Desarrollo Integral, Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, México y Mario's Tours, Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, México 3 Marios Tour's, Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, México
Guerrero Negro is the biggest city at El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, and despite of it there is too few knowledge about the Reserve and very low environmental commitment because the Reserve’s environmental education activities are directed to a very restricted public. East from Guerrero Negro there is a patch of a less-disturbed small leaf shrubs where a small colony of burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) sat a few years ago. This owl is a protected species in Mexico listed at the NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2001 as specially protected and is considered a common concern species by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America. Meyibó Desarrollo Integral, through the project Ojoo (owl in Kumeyaay language) is protecting and to monitoring the burrowing owl colony that stands inside the property of Mario’s Restaurant, east from Guerrero Negro, and is promoting the preservation of their nests and feeding grounds located in the terrains adjacent to the Restraurant through a private land conservation scheme and a very strong educational effort thought a joint work with local and federal governmental agencies. We have proposed the establishment of an Ecologic Preservation Zone (a municipal protected area) at the City of Guerrero Negro, which will be set based on the 46th article, section X of the General Ecologic Equilibrium and Environmental Protection Law giving it a character of a Zone Subject to Ecological Conservation according to the 86th article of the Law of Ecologic Equilibrium and Environmental Protection of the State of Baja California Sur. The main goal of the decree will be to protect the burrowing owl nesting colony and to provide the community with an interpretation and environmental culture facility focused on the original ecosystem of Guerrero Negro and to offer a unique site for the study and monitoring of this and other species of the Central Desert short shrub ecosystem’s wildlife and flora, as well as providing the community with an area for rest and environmental education apart from the bird refugee that already exist and that is very appreciated by the people of Guerrero. In addition, it is projected to co-work with the municipal authorities in feral dog control and waste management because these issues have a very harmful effect on the species. The monitoring program has been done for three years already, and it has registered the presence of at least 4 wintering pairs, as well as a resident couple that has produced four chickens during 2010. As an additional data, in January 2011 there were done some transects in the area and there were located other sites used by wintering owls and it was possible to identify a female burrowing owl that migrated from Alberta in Canada. This event indicates that the central peninsula offers a unique habitat quality that could be an important step in the life cycle of the species and in consequence its preservation is critic.
This monitoring project is done jointly with the Canadian Environmental Agency through the burrowing owl program in Alberta, and with Mexican researchers.
