Support Young Environmental Leaders in Mexico

First of all we´d like to thank our supporters for voting for our project during the 2020 Photo Contest campaign by GlobalGiving. 

A special thanks to those who signed up to recieve these reports, tripling the impact of your vote. 

Since March 18th schools in our state of Querétaro have been closed.  As a result we have been preparing an online curriculum for teachers to teach their students about environment in an online format.

We have also been sharing some didactic materials online, through our social media channels, fr parents to use with their students at home. 

In order to continue our work on the campaign to minimze solid waste in the Sierra Gorda, we have been in contact with officials and vendors from the five municipalities (Jalpan de Sierra, Landa de Matamors, Pinal de Amoles, Peñamiller, and Arroyo Seco).  We have recommended that vendors use reusable materials for packaging rather than one time use disposable ones where possible. 

In the different markets and commercial centers we have hung signs about not using single use plastic bags, proper trash disposal, separating trash from recycling and organic materials, and how to start your own compost. 

We distributed reusable bags to merchants so they can spread awareness of the campaign to their customers. 

GRUPO ECOLÓGICO SIERRA GORDA

COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

The Earth Festivals

 Every year during the months of February, March, April and May with the help of docents and educational networks, The National Council for Educational Development (CONAFE) and Initial Education, a program of the Secretary of Public Education, we complete 50 Earth Festivals.

The Earth Festivals are cultural events that have a goal of rescuing and promoting the roots and traditions of the Sierra Region, and also fomenting the culture of environmental protection.  In the 2020 festivals the central theme is “Minimizing Solid Waste,” but more than anything they are a hommage of respect and love for our Mother Earth.  Educational insitutions, parents, and the general public, organize the events in their community to that end.  Elementary Schools participated in this ocassion and developed cultural programming that included participation in theatrical productions, choral performances, poetry recitals, expositions of work done in schools relevent to conservation.  The mothers also participate each year by creating demonstrations of gastronomy from the local community that they share with all the festival participants.  They showcase typical dishes from the region, highlighting natural ingredients like cactus, oak flowers and different plants and edible tubers.

Promoters of the program, in order to build awareness in the population in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, presented the play, “The Evil of Basuroso on Earth.”  They did so with the objective of teaching the audiences the appropriate management of solid wastes, inorganic trash, organic waste, and sanitary waste and above all reducing the amount of trash that we produce daily.  They also gave the students and adults posters that show graphically how to separate solid waste, and booklets with practical advice for reducing your ecological footprint.  By the same thread, students were recognized and given a chance to share their point of view about what they understood from the play and sharing the necessity for everyone to participate in the conservation of nature.

In this period we completed 26 events in different municipalities and zones of influence in and around the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.  We had 2,348 students, 40 Elementary Schools, 88 teachers, 643 plates demonstrating gatronomical heritage, 741 homemakers and community leaders and community members participate.

Thes events have an environmental impact because they encourage people to replicate activities in their communities and schools through building awareness in themes like: reducing solid waste, separating solid waste, preventing forest fires, saving water, and avoiding purchasing of throwaway products. 

Due to the spread of COVID-19 we did need to suspend activities in March and cancelled 24 Earth Festivals.

Testimonies:

Mónica from the community of Adjuntas de Ahuacatlan.

The Earth Festivals teach us a lot and in this instance I learned that we need to think about nature, we´re destroying it and we should take care of that little bit that is left.  Separating our trash at home, teaching our kids to participate, making sure that everyone in our houses are involved in taking care of that which is around us, and that our neighbors learn to do the same.  That way we can have clean water, clean air, healthy forests.  We hope Grupo Ecológico will keep teaching us different ways to take care of our communities. 

It´s good that you all visit us because we all learn, our children and all the families.  And I hope you keep bringing these festivals to thank nature for all of the blessings it gives us and also to share as a community.  Thank you Grupo Ecológico for visiting us. 

 Graciela from the community of Zoyapilca.

I only want to say that we need to put into practice all that Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, has taught us, so that we don´t continue contaminating our communities.  And that our children teach us and are an example of that which they are learning.  Together, as a community we can take care of and maintain the wellbeing of all of the nature in our community.

Thanks Grupo Ecológico for visiting us and bringing us these messages which are so helpful to us for taking care of and respecting that which surrounds us. 

Educating for Climate Action

At our headquarters in Jalpan de Serra, we held a national workshop called "Climate Action", which was aimed at teachers, educators and the media to address climate change. We all gathered to share the experiences of local initiatives and local entrepreneurs solving problems in their own contexts with innovation, as well as, to raise awareness, and to manage and organize solutions to the countless threats to nature. Our partner, Earth Day Network, presented its 2020 campaign, broadcast from Washington DC, to publicize the initiatives that educators can incorporate into their curriculum, in particular celebrating Earth Day on April 22.  We were pleased to welcome old friends and allies from different states of the country as well as new educators. We find that in our communities, we are doing our best to counteract the reality of climate change, which is disrupting the fabric of life at a tremendous speed.

And for Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, the backbone of the civil movement for conservation is Communtiy Environmental Education, a catalyzer for the coming generations to be environmentally sensitive, aware with new habits and feelings for Nature. Take these amazing kids, learning about the birds in their community, the types of food they eat and the habitat they need to survive. Each year we continue to work with the students, parents, teachers and local authorities to educate for a shared future.

The support we receive through Global Giving for this leadership project among youth is critical because we can guarantee deeper interaction and development with the opportunity to make the planetary crisis a shared challenge.

Links:

• Monthly newsletter: Mission 2020

The Young Environmental Leaders project “Everyone for the Planet" began with visits to different institutions in the Sierra Gorda where we seek to raise awareness among the youth on the importance of conserving the environment. During these sessions we have invited them to be part of our social media campaigns and to be active members on the Facebook platform "Hands together for the Planet Sierra Gorda", through which our young leaders can share; information, petitions for signatures, advice, reflections, and events, among other climate actions for the planet.

The Young Environmental Leaders project seeks to identify and promote new ecological leaders who have a sense of belonging and a commitment to caring for the planet, young people who make use of their creativity and tools available to them in order to design an action plan from the local level that addresses an identified problem or need in their school or community.

Young leaders must be able to organize and create movements using their communication skills to motivate other young people and the general population to take action for climate change and to conserve our environment.

El proyecto de Brigadas “Todos x el planeta” dio inicio con las visitas a las diferentes instituciones de la Sierra Gorda en donde se busca sensibilizar a los jóvenes sobre la importancia de conservar el medio ambiente, durante las sesiones se les ha invitado a ser parte de este proyecto y a ser miembros activos en la plataforma de Facebook “Manos unidas x el planeta Sierra Gorda”, en la cual se pretende que los jóvenes compartan en ella; información, peticiones de firmas, consejos, reflexiones, eventos, entre otras cosas que sean exclusivamente con contenido sobre acciones por el planeta.

El proyecto de brigadas busca identificar e impulsar a los nuevos líderes ecológicos que tengan ese sentido de pertenencia y un compromiso con el planeta para su cuidado, jóvenes que hagan uso de su creatividad y de herramientas que tengas a su alcance para diseñar un plan de acción desde lo local que atienda una problemática o necesidad identificada en su escuela o comunidad.

Los jóvenes líderes deben ser capaces de organizar y crear movimientos usando sus habilidades de convencimiento y motivando a los demás jóvenes y población en general para desarrollar acciones por el cambio climático y la conservación de nuestro entorno.

In May, 55 young people declared themselves stewards of Nature and the Planet after completing this educational experience about taking action for a healthy climate with staff of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG). They took the time to learn theory, have hands-on practical experience and have the opportunity to define their action plan as a coalition of students.

The first day began with Pati Ruiz Corzo, a globally recognized leader in conservation and the founding director of GESG, to talk about the origins of this regionwide citizens´ movement, the on-going conservation and community organizing required to protect the valuable wildlife that takes refuge in Querétaro, and to challenge the youth to think and feel throughout the next days about how they can help.  Integrating everyone into the activities that evening made it possible to connect with the objective of the gathering - to build an action plan with commitments that each group of students can commit to for the next year. 

The main part of the experience took place at the Tonatico Ranching School one hour from our headquarters.  The day of the camping trip included some sessions with experts in the field. Nature photographer Roberto Pedraza (GESG staffmember) gave a moving presentation about the wealth of ecosystems and biodiversity in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve and the threats it faces.  Over the course of the day, the young people had a dynamic mix of theory and practice, including the topics of (1.) awareness about healthy food production and consumption, (2.) cattle and agriculture based on the 10 principles for holistic nature-based management, (3.) what it means to define objectives, action plans, commitments and teamwork. 

Walking through the forest and work areas of the Ranch School was an eye opening experience for many, having been raised in the small urban environments where they were born.  Planting out a seed flat, turning fresh compost, interacting with farm animals and understanding the role they have in holistic management, eating fresh cut vegetables with people knowledgeable about the nutritional value, were all lifetime experiences for most of the students who participated.  We learned how most of the young adults have been exposed exclusively to conventional ranching - and they recognized how different and productive the landscape is under regenerative practices.

This first workshop was designed to reach young people active in the state of Querétaro, Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda´s home state.  They came from different universities nd counties: the Technological University of San Juan del Rio, Jalpan Unit; Autonomous University of Querétaro; ITSRV of Rio Verde S.L.P.; and the counties of Arroyo Seco, Jalpan de Serra, Rio Blanco, and Peñamiller; and a few from the neighboring state of San Luis Potosí.

With further support we can equip these young people who will be living in semi-rural, semi-urban settings with the experiences, the curiousity and hopefully the skills that will continue to shape new possibilities for the future we want.

Links:

• Video of the Youth Ecological Camp