Los Cabos, BCS. _ The Sierra San Pedro Mártir national park is a natural laboratory of utmost importance for researchers because it has never been subject to forest management and is a living sample of what the original forests of North America were like. conservation is only 150,000 pesos per year, so it needs support.
On this subject, the following shared their points of view Patricio Robles Gilconservation photographer; Juan Vargas VelascoField Chief of the Californian Condor Reintroduction Program in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, and Ernesto Herrera GuerraGeneral Director of Reforestamos Mexico and President of the Mexican Committee of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, in the talk Giant tree forests in Sierra San Pedro Mártir, BCduring the Summit 2024 Cities with a Future. No fear of action.
Vargas Velazco commented that because of the aforementioned characteristics, this park has received researchers from different parts of the world for many decades. One of them is Richard MinnichThe University of California, Riverside, who gave him the context of this treasure that Baja California has to offer.
After much research, he said Minnich came to the conclusion that the forest of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir needs natural fire to be preserved.
Robles Gil also alluded to Minnich, because he said that the trees in Saint Peter Martyr were five times more resilient than any other forest in North America.
"Of course, because they have transmitted their genetics over the years and with the fires, because they are fires that are caused by thunderstorms. He told me, 'the problem of the big fires in California is because the forest has already been altered, the ecosystems have been altered and many of these fires are already provoked,'" said Juan Vargas.
Patricio Robles emphasized that what worries them is the lack of resources with which the park administration has to pay for the conservation of this treasure.
That is why, replicating the idea launched at Summit 2023 with the adoption of California condors, they have partnered with We reforest to initiate a campaign for the adoption of centennial trees from San Pedro Mártir.
Ernesto Herrera commented that this is a great idea, because it is a way in which they can scale conservation financing through a new scheme.
"Reforestation is necessary in many places, but being able to work in San Pedro Mártir with an adoption scheme is a mechanism that can be very cost-effective, it links this emotional part that exists behind these incredible stories of these trees, but also the logical part of these environmental indicators that can be generated in this particular space," he said.
Robles Gil explained that the adoption is a one-time adoption of mature trees of approximately 100 years old and with a diameter of one meter or more, at a cost of 10,000 pesos.
"As the tree thickens, which can be up to 700 years old, it can reach up to 100,000 pesos per tree," he said.
"You can give it a name, an alias, a nickname, Manolo Arango was the first to adopt a tree, we called him Don Manolo; Daniel Servitje, the CEO of Bimbo, also adopted another tree."
Robles Gil stressed that it is time to revalue the future of nature and leave as a legacy for future generations the forests, seas, deserts and all those spaces that gave us life.
