Community participation in bird conservation in Bahía de Los Angeles, Baja California, Mexico

Bahia de los Angeles. Photo by Jennie Duberstein.

Project Description

Pronatura Noroeste received support from the Sonoran Joint Venture to promote the involvement of the local community in bird conservation and monitoring activities in Bahía de Los Angeles, Baja California, Mexico (BLA). The BLA region is used as a breeding, roosting, and feeding ground by large numbers of seabirds and wading birds. The incipient local ecotourism industry is not aware of the importance and potential of birds as a natural attraction in this region. Consequently, birds and their coastal habitats are not included in the local conservation agenda, despite the fact that the area is being proposed as a new coastal and marine National Park. At the same time, the “Valle de los Cirios” Federal Wildlife Reserve, which covers all terrestrial habitats in the desert, does not have a bird conservation plan or monitoring strategy. This project strives to fill these gaps by (1) providing formal avitourism training as an incentive to involve locals in the sustainable use and conservation of birds and their habitats in Bahía de Los Angeles; and (2) supporting and facilitating conservation and monitoring actions, as well as local participation in these activities, by involving locals in the development of a first GIS database on terrestrial and coastal birds in the region.

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Gustavo Danemann
Pronatura Noroeste