Pronatura, Mexico's BirdLife affiliate, offers its support for World Albatross Day

Pronatura México is the largest environmental conservation group in Mexico and is a national affiliate of BirdLife International.  Founded in 1981, the organization is a network of regional chapters covering 32 Mexican states. focused on promoting science-based conservation models that enable human progress and move towards environmental sustainability.  The regional chapters share Pronatura’s mission of the conservation of the flora, fauna and priority ecosystems of Mexico, and promoting society's development in harmony with nature.  Pronatura heads conservation projects and activities in 56 areas of importance for bird conservation (IBAs) in Mexico, as well as in other areas of conservation priority (click here).

Claudia Macías, Deputy Director of Conservation, Pronatura Sur writes to ACAP Latest News: “Pronatura, Mexico's BirdLife partner, offers its support for World Albatross Day on 19 June”.

Claudia Macías, Deputy Director of Conservation, Pronatura Sur

Claudia Macías’ colleague, Eric Hernández Molina, Biodiversity and Landscape Monitoring Coordinator/Coordinador de Monitoreo de Biodiversidad y Paisajes, Pronatura Sur adds: “In Mexico, this wonderful group of birds mainly inhabits the Pacific Ocean and breeds on islands hundreds of kilometres from the coast.  They are birds little known by most people.  However, they are severely affected by the large amounts of solid and plastic materials that are discarded in the ocean, which can float for thousands of kilometres.  It is time to make a change from plastic to natural materials, decrease our consumption, recycle and promote appropriate public policies on the management of solid and liquid waste.  These are necessary actions to help recover populations of albatrosses and thousands of other species. worldwide.”

 Eric Hernández Molina, Biodiversity and Landscape Monitoring Coordinator/Coordinador de Monitoreo de Biodiversidad y Paisajes, Pronatura Sur

Plastics found in the stomach of an albatross, Museum Support Center, Smithsonian Institution, photograph by Eric Hernández Molina

“En México este maravilloso grupo de aves habita principalmente el océano pacífico y se reproduce en islas a cientos de kilómetros de las costas.  Son aves poco conocidas por la mayoría de la gente, sin embargo, son afectados severamente por las grandes cantidades de materiales plásticos y sólidos que son desechados en los océanos, los cuales pueden flotar por miles de kilómetros.  Taparroscas, cepillos de dientes, juguetes, frascos y otros objetos plásticos, son encontrados en los estómagos de las aves marinas.  Es tiempo de realizar un cambio de materias plásticas por materias naturales, disminuir nuestro consumo, reciclar e impulsar políticas públicas apropiadas sobre el manejo de desechos sólidos y líquidos, son acciones necesarias para ayudar a recuperar las poblaciones de los albatros y de otras miles de especies alrededor del mundo."

Although not a Party to ACAP, Mexico has attended Agreement meetings as a breeding range state.  Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis (Near Threatened) breed in small numbers on four Mexican islands, where another Mexican environmental NGO, Grupo de Ecología y Conservación de Islas, A.C. (GECI), has worked to conserve them by removing introduced pests.

 With thanks to Eric Hernández Molina and Claudia Macías Caballero, Pronatura Sur, Mexico.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 13 June 2020