Press Releases 07
Ambassador Garza Announces $5 Million Dollars for the Environment
Ceremony Marks Completion of Parks in Peril Program
Statement by Ambassador Antonio O. Garza
Mexico City, October 15, 2007 – “The U.S. government is committed
to bilateral cooperation on environmental issues with Mexico.
Today I am pleased to announce an additional $5 million dollars
to support conservation, forestry, and global climate change
programs this year. These new activities complement ongoing
efforts focusing on renewable energy, pollution reduction,
watershed management and community conservation.
“Parks in Peril is one of the most successful joint programs
that we have supported over the past 17 years. It is also
among the largest and most ambitious international conservation
programs in the world. In 17 countries, across 40 million
acres, 45 priceless ecosystems have been protected. Ten of
these protected areas are in Mexico.
“I am very honored this afternoon to participate with the
Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, Juan Elvira
Quesada; President of the National Commission for Protected
Areas, Dr. Ernesto Enkerlin; Director of the Mexico Program
for The Nature Conservancy, Rosario Alvarez; and Program Manager
for the Parks in Peril, Dr. Jim Reiger in commemorating this
enormous endeavor.
“In Mexico, the U.S. government, through its Agency for International
Development (USAID), invested over $14 million dollars to
enhance the capacity of ten national protected areas to manage
their own resources. Protected areas, including Cuatro
Ciengas, and the Sian Ka’an and El Triunfo Biosphere
Reserves, received assistance to train staff, define conservation
and social development policies, and to create financial mechanisms
to sustain local management of these areas. Local communities
learned to integrate the protected areas into their economic
and cultural lives.
“Since its inception in 1990, the Parks in Peril program
worldwide has received $74 million dollars in funding from
the United States government through USAID, matched by nearly
$27 million dollars raised by The Nature Conservancy and its
partner organizations.”
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