CONSERVATION FOR MIGRATORY REEG IN MEXICO

This proposal contributes to a large-scale National Program that, since 2013, seeks to recover the Reddish Egret (REEG) populations and their habitats in Mexico.

Partners will build on the success of prior phases, which have recovered about 55% of the REEG population of the Central Management Unit that represents 83% of the total population in Mexico.

They will address the main threats to wintering sites in Mexico: loss and reduction of habitat quality, information gaps that prevent decision-making, increase of maritime traffic, apathy of authorities and residents to the importance of REEG and the lack of follow-up to long-term conservation strategies.

Partners will: 1) Protect priority winter foraging habitat (11,609 acres) for the REEG on Laguna Madre and the East Coast of Belize, 2) Reforest mangrove (247ac) in priority winter sites in Laguna Madre de Tamaulipas and the North Coast of Yucatan, 3) Continue the REEG monitoring program and start a systematized monitoring in Belize, 4) Undertake an environmental education and community outreach strategy in Tamaulipas, Yucatn and Belize and 5) Follow the Business Plan for the Conservation of the Reddish Egret in Mexico and the new updated version of the global Action Plan (Green et al, in press).