Lock and Win

In the region of Los Tuxtlas, Santa Marta, which until it was once a dream of a few, has become a shared effort in building process: it is the development of a regionalized environmental education strategy, ie designed specifically for the characteristics, needs, problems and social actors in this area so important from the standpoint of biodiversity, culture and environmental services. One might think that the roads would be raided conservation after having decreed the creation of the Biosphere Reserve Tuxtlas nearly nine years, and have been studied the relevance of the recharge area for aquifers and biodiversity. But reality is not so simple: different ecological damage is often still present (fire, pollution, deforestation, overexploitation of resources, removal of protected species, etc.).. It happens that the investigations, recommendations, regulations and decrees are little use if they are understood, accepted and adopted by those who interact daily with the region to be protected. This means that to preserve and restore the natural wealth of Los Tuxtlas is indispensable support from various social sectors.But for their participation actually have a positive impact, should be based on well-founded information and analysis, in addition to strategies and organization to optimize resources and wills. Because of this, since 2005 the Integrated Ecosystem Management Project (MIE-GEF) 1 of the Directorate of the Biosphere Reserve, with support from various institutions and organizations have worked to define and implement a strategy environmental education for both the buffer zone of the Reserve (home to about 33 thousand people), as for its area of influence, where there are towns and municipal centers such as Santiago and San Andres Tuxtla, Catemaco, Tatahuicapan, Soteapan, Minatitlan and Coatzacoalcos, which together have more than one million inhabitants. From the outset has been the intention of overcoming various inertias which are quite common in the area who work in education and awareness on the environment: waste of effort, lack of human resources, training opportunities and support materials, simplification of the problem and strategies that attack only the most superficial aspects Sectorisation environmental work, approaches and information too general or designed for other contexts, and so on. Therefore, it has conducted a patient and well-planned work based on the following lines of work: 1 .- Generate learning spaces and meeting in which representatives of various institutions, organizations and social sectors interested in promoting more and better environmental culture, so that everyone contribute their experiences and knowledge, and there may be an appreciation and support for shared goals. We call this learning community. 2 .- Carry out awareness raising at various institutions, inviting them to devote greater attention and resources to the issue of environmental education. 3 .- Aware that economic and human resources currently allocated to this area are reduced, instead of trying to make a small working group to reach a population as large as the one in the region, the strategy has been privileged to call “training the trainers”, ie support the training of persons who fall within the scope of education in the region.