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Mexico City, Mexico, May 22, 2006. – “Nothing symbolizes the innate beauty of nature quite like the Monarch Butterfly. We will help fund five new conservation initiatives to ensure that future generations can enjoy the spectacle of this remarkable creature and its annual migratory flight across the United States, Mexico, and Canada,” said U.S. Ambassador Antonio O. Garza, Jr.
Speaking today at the Third Regional Forum on Monarch Butterflies in Temascalcingo, outside Mexico City, Ambassador Garza said, “The U.S. Embassy through its Agency for International Development and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will donate $163,000 to assist in conservation efforts for this shared natural wonder. Our gift to Mexico will promote sustainable economic development in four local communities near the sanctuary and protect the site to which the butterflies migrate every winter.”
“The initiatives we are funding will also strengthen ecotourism in the Ejido El Rosario, and help the team designing a new tourism center in Cerro Prieto and tourism trails and routes in Angangueo. They will also move forward a tourism plan for the town of Angangueo and improve forest management. Projects like these give real benefits to the residents of Mexico’s rural communities and offer the best prospects of sustaining this country’s natural beauty for future generations to enjoy,” added Garza.
State of Mexico Governor Enrique Peña Nieto, Michoacan Governor Lázaro Cardenas Batel, and Environment and Natural Resources Secretary José Luis Luege Tamargo joined Ambassador Garza at the Forum.
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