The Community Ecotourism, Biodiversity and Ethnobiology of San Juan Teponaxtla, Cuicatlan, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Currently, Geobicom is carrying out this project, which is supported in its first phase by Rufford Small Grant Foundation from United Kingdom, under the name “Towards a Strategy of Environmental Education and Community Ecotourism in San Juan Teponaxtla, Oaxaca”.
In this project we are designing and promoting an Environmental Education and Community Ecotourism project as an economic alternative and as a way of conservation of natural resources for the inhabitants of an indigenous community in Oaxaca State. To this end, we published an illustrated ecotourism guide with information about local flora and fauna. In this guide also includes information regarding natural resources, indigenous traditional knowledge and cultural information about village history, local language and their socioeconomics and political characteristics. At the same time, we are carrying out an Environmental Education Programme in order to make the population aware of the importance of biodiversity conservation. Additionally, we are making biodiversity inventories and ethnobiological studies to rescue and systematize the traditional knowledge about natural resources. Finally, we worked with people in workshops, in order to know the ideas they have regarding ecotourism and some activities they want to develop in this programme and in this way, we could develop a strategy of ecotourism together with local people..
Up to now, we have completed the first phase of this project, which involved biological, and ethnobiological studies, the ecotourism guide and the Community Ecotourism Strategy. In the second phase, we are planning to carry out some of the priorities activities identified in the workshops as very important activities to do before to develop the ecotourism programme, for instance, they need to improve several habits in the community (cleanliness of public places), and develop some handicraft projects in order to make a better ecotourism destination in the community.
In a third phase, we are planning to execute the Ecotourism Programme and also, to attempt to make a union of communities between Teponaxtla and other two neighbours communities. The objective is to create a biological corridor adjacent to the Biosphere Reserve Tehuacan-Cuicatlan.
