Highlights from Latin America & Caribbean - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sierra Madre Occidental; Chihuahua, Mexico Ecosystem Protection in Southern Mexico Pronatura, A.C.; Mexico El Carricito del Huichol; Jalisco, Mexico Fundación Vida, Honduras The Pantanal, Bolivia Nicaraguan Protected Areas Pic Macaya National Park, Haiti

BSP's Latin America & Caribbean Program

El Carricito del Huichol; Jalisco, Mexico

Supporting conservation of old-growth, pine-oak forests.

BSP provided funds to the Consejo Internacional para la Preservacíon de las Aves (CIPA-MEX), a local chapter of Birdlife International, to conduct a survey of the remaining old-growth, pine-oak forest in the region to identify priority areas for conservation. One of the sites identified as a priority for conservation, El Carricito del Huichol, located in the Southern Sierra Madre of Jalisco, holds the only considerable extent of old-growth mesa forest remaining in the entire Sierra Madre Occidental. Comprising 14,880 hectares (ha), El Carricito is especially important for the eared trogon (Euptilotus neoxenus) and is rich in such game species as wild turkey and white-tailed deer. The latter is culturally significant to the nearby Huichol community, which uses deer in many traditional rites. CIPA-MEX inventoried flora and fauna; completed a survey of land tenure; and developed maps of the area illustrating topography, climatological factors, and soil types.

As a result, the Huichol community of San Sebastian Teponahuaxtlan and its annex, Tuxpan de Bolaños, declared 10,000 ha of El Carricito a conservation area. The declaration presented a unique opportunity for the Huichol community to develop sustainable management plans to halt the destruction of much of the old-growth, pine-oak habitat that had been threatened by extensive logging operations and that had also threatened many species of the Sierra with extinction. This achievement also created more favorable conditions for the conservation of the remaining area of El Carricito and serves as a model for Mexico's other 154 priority areas, recently delineated by the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO).

Additional Resources

For more information about CIPAMEX, e-mail Patricia Escalante, Curator of Birds, National Bird Collection (CNAV) at escalante@servidor.unam.mx. 

Escalante, P., J. Rojas, y A. Quijada (editores). 1997. Memorias del Taller Participativo para la Conservación de El Carricito (Hakamayewe), Sierra de Bolaños, Jalisco. CIPAMEX. 

Lammertink, J.M., J.A. Rojas-TomJ , F.M. Casillas-Orona, and R.L. Otto. 1997. Status and Conservation of Old-Growth Forests and Endemic Birds in the Pine-Oak Zone of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico. (pub. no.160) CIPAMEX.