Ejido La Flor, municipality of Mapimí, Durango - November 29, 2006 - As part of the Nature Conservancy Day, and to close the VIth Conservancy week, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) and the National Commission on Protected Natural Areas (CONANP) carried out the sixth edition of the Nature Conservancy Awards, in the following categories: academic, individual, civil and business society, and local authorities.

Xel-Ha waterpark won an honorable mention in the business category, known from now on as Nezhualcóyotl, after the mexica king, poet and nature lover. Elizabeth Lugo Monjarrás, general manager of Xel-Ha, received the award from Lic. José Luis Luege Tamargo, Secretary of Environmnent. The ceremony was also attended by Lic. Ismael Hernández Deras, governor of Durango, and Dr. Ernesto Enkerlin, president of the CONANP. Both of them recognized the hard work Xel-Ha has done to restore the ecosystem of the Xel-Ha inlet by retrieving the natural beauty and health it had lost due to inadequate tourist exploitation. They also praised their concrete actions in favor of the pink conch (Strombus Gigas), sea turtles and the financing of the hydrological system of the inlet together with major academic institutions such as the UNAM Geophysics Institute, the Water Network of the Mexican Science Academy and the Yucatan Scientific Research Center, CICY.

The Mapimí Biosphere Reserve in Durango is a desert area and it is the first protected, natural reserve in Latin America, but it is also famous as the "silence zone". It was a spectacular setting for the 2006 Nature Conservancy Awards ceremony, attended by local "comuneros" and "ejidatarios" (communal land farmers), the guardians of the area, as well as by government authorities from Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora as well as the federal government, who all agreed on the importance of such awards. According to Dr. Enkerlin, from CONANP, they are the "Conservation Oscar Awards" and they acknowledge the contribution of individuals, government institutions, civil society and companies to a task that is of great importance to everybody.

For further information and images please visit: www.xel-ha.com/news/nature-conservancy.php.

DTS, S.C.

DTS, S.C.

More from DTS, S.C.