Productos y Servicios Sierra Gorda, S.A. de C.V. was founded in 2008 as an umbrella company whose retail supports conservation of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve and aims to catalyze micro-enterprises to higher standards as part of the project. It is divided into two areas: Sierra Gorda Products and Sierra Gorda Ecotours. Both generate profits that finance capacity building, consolidation, operation, and marketing of sustainable rural tourism.
Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda I.A.P. (GESG) was founded in 1987 as an authorized civil society organization whose mission is to conserve the natural wealth by generating development opportunities for the landowners and replicating their projects in other areas of Mexico. It does so by uniting citizens with institutional, national, and international efforts. Its lines of work include training and environmental education, managing solid waste, fundraising, defending the territory, influencing public policies, and consolidating a conservation economy in the region. Together with the sister organizations that share its objective, GESG leads and coordinates the Conservation Alliance for the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, building solid social participation among the all-level networks with which it works. In this way, it protects the ecosystems and species of the Reserve.
Bosque Sustentable, A.C. was founded in 2002 as an independent civil society association. It works to restore soils by training and advising agricultural producers on best practices. It also measures, monitors, and develops ecosystem products and voluntary CO2 offsets, diversifies micro-entrepreneurial activities, and gives courses in collaboration with Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P.
Joya del Hielo, A.C. was founded in 1996 as an initiative of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P.’s members and other conservationists. The aim of Joya del Hielo, A.C. is to protect unique sites with high biological value by purchasing them for strict conservation. Today, it protects 6,500 hectares of cloud, temperate, and tropical forests that host an important diversity of flora and fauna species and where degradation by logging, cattle ranching, and other activities has been eradicated.
Viva Sierra Gorda was founded in 2004 as an Earth Island Institute project, located in Berkeley, California. It is fundraising partner organization, transferring accessible technologies. It also manages the platform www.planetacarbononeutral.org that allows companies and individuals to compensate their carbon footprint in forests via Sierra Gorda’s Carbono Biodiverso.
