Director of Mexico's National Park Service visits Puebla

On Wenesday, Ernesto Enkerlin the director of CONANP (Mexico’s National Park Service) came to visit a natural protected area in the northern part of the state of Puebla (it also extends into the neighboring state of Hidalgo). The parks’ full name is Área de Protección de Recursos Naturales: Cuenca Hidrográica del Río Necaxa (Area for the Protection of Natural Resources: Watershed of the river Nexaca). We have been fairly involved in this area of the state through our work on the Ordenamiento (regional land use plan) for the watershed of the rivers Necaxa and Laxaxalpan. We also have 13 municipal ordenamientos currently underway in the region as well. The first stop on the trip was to visit a community mushroom growing project. The couple running the project actually received their check from the director that day.

Sterilization is one of the key concerns when trying to start a mushroom project. The mushrooms eventually grow out of hay placed in plastic bags that have been inoculated with mushroom spores, but the hay must be boiled and disinfected first. People working with the mushrooms usually wear plastic bags over their shoes and face masks.

As a complementary project, the same group has also started a small ornamental plant nursery.

We then made a quick stop to see a reforestation project funded by PEMEX.

The last stop, before finishing the day at a restaurant for some mushroom soup and grilled meat, was at a reservoir called Tejocotal that is actually in the state of Hidalgo. This is one of the reservoirs used by the electric company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC) (it’s an entity of the federal government) to provide hydroelectric power to the region. The Necaxa Natural Protected Area was basically created to protect the production of hydroelectricity. The idea is that if you protect the watershed, you will ensure that water is still arriving at the reservoirs and if the land remains forested, the reservoirs will have a longer life time before they fill with sediments. LFC has worked on a lot of environmental projects in the area, including reforestations, the declaration of several of their reservoirs as RAMSAR sites, and trash clean-up. Unfortunately, the future of LFC is a little up in the air…. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/11/mexico.utility.company.raid/index.html. The Puebla offices mentioned in this article are where we have had most of our meetings related to the Regional Ordenamiento. All in all a good day and a chance to see a little bit more of the natural protected area.