ANNUAL SUMMARY 2001
  • Community Training
  • Parks
  • Trips and exchange organized
  • Colibri Award
  • Lessons Learned

Community training
Community training has taught us that there is no better money spent than the one which enables  communities to take make their own decisions, regardless of whether "experts" consider them  correct.

In the past two years we have specialized in building light infrastructure; trail building, sanitation  facilities, camp sites, signage, recreational GIS, maps and others. Now we teach campesinos  (farmers) how to build their own parks. Locals who organize themselves and their own ecotourism  operations are key to the success of rural tourism. Each of our courses is different and developed  to take advantage of the particular site. Our most recent work has been:

Comunity /Hectáreas en uso
Axosco, D.F / 3000 ha
San Miguel San de mi Alma, Edo. Mex. / 200 ha
Reserva estatal Monte alto, Edo. Mex. / 564 ha
Vergel de Bernalejo, Guanajuato. / 1000 ha
Yavesia, Sierra Norte de Oaxaca / 9000 ha

In addition to this training we have taken community leaders to visit each other's projects. This  year we conducted several one-day workshops with our friends at the San Nicolas Park (the  project Balam started in 1994 with financial assistance from the Fondo Mexicano para la  Naturaleza or FMCN) as well as Monte Alto and the Axosco park.

  • 40 people from "el Jabali, Edo. Mex." hoping to start an ecotourism project visited San  Nicolas.
  • 50 from "El Chico and El Guajolote" in the state of Hidalgo visited San Nicolas and Monte  Alto.
  • 15 comuneros from Zacapexco in Estado de Mexico visited San Nicolas and Monte Alto.
  • 50 Comuneros from "La Magdalena Contreras visited Monte Alto and Axosco park in D.F.

Parks
CEPANAF (The State of Mexico's Park Commission) hired Balam to build parks in the Monte Alto  State Reserve at Valle de Bravo. This included the construction of 20 miles of multiple use trails,  two camp sites including 12 soil beds for camping, three fire places, one palapa, six dry  sanitations modules, six "Tent cabins" with four beds each, two information modules, maps and  more than 300 individual signs.

Trips and exchanged organized
This summer Balam invited the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) and Open Spaces  from Colorado to work in Monte Alto for one week in the development of multiple-use trails, Judd  de  Vall and Kim Fredrick exchanged techniques and tips with campesinos and Balam.

Balam organized the "Tuercas y Tornillos para Axosco" on July 1st. The objective of this one-day  bicycle ride was to gather bike parts to donate for the alpine patrol of the recently created  (December 2000) Axosco Park. Balam  invited mountain bikers to visit Monte Alto in a morning ride to promote the park.

The Colibri Award
Planeta.com with a donation from Emilio Kafuri of Columbus Travel presented to Balam the Colibri  Ecotourism Award in recognition for our work. This is one of the best things that has happened to  us! The $1,000 US was invested in the completion of the trails in Monte Alto and a CD burner for
our presentations. http://www.planeta.com/planeta/01/0106award.html

Lessons Learned
In the beginning stage nature tourism development in Mexico was primarily the business of writing  papers. Expensive consultancy firms would work on projects that never got off the ground. Now  tourism operators, government officials and communities are demanding to see real projects  achieve their potential.

Income from nature-based tourism can pay for conservation, local surveillance and diminish the  migration among young people in rural areas. Today, more than ever, there is more than one  reason to be proud of rural Mexico. We have noticed that the biggest threat comes from the  pressure to sell the land -- privatization. This occurs mostly in coastal regions. Examples of
impacted areas include the Costa Maya and the Sea of Cortez -- targeted for development by the  Escalera Nautica project.

Sustainable tourism is not necessarily expensive. Balam works with minimal budgets because  the  people we want to work with have very little money. The fact is that in Mexico we have an  opportunity to learn about our own natural and cultural heritage. Tourism offers Mexican nationals  and foreigners the chance to see the deeper side of Mexico.

Balam Consultants
Antonio Suarez febobalam@laneta.apc.org
Juan Carlos Ibarra jbalam1@prodigy.net.mx