CONSERVATION INICIATIVES
Patricio's work as a conservationist is broad and ranges from dissemination campaigns to promote knowledge and the importance of priority species, to field work to conserve them in situ, ranging from promoting global strategies for the conservation of biodiversity and wilderness, through congresses, publications, conferences, exhibitions and talks. Also, he accomplishes the acquisition of large portions of land, of great biological importance, to guarantee its permanence in perpetuity.
Dear Patricio, your work it surprises me, moves me, excites me, confronts me, hurts me, relieves me, encourages me, turns me on, obliges me, frees me. I am an absolute admirer of your work and of your person.
Guillermo Arriaga
Writer, Cinematographer
EL CARMEN
Patricio's father was a doctor. Don Carlos Osuna was one of his patients, he had a large ranch in the mountains of northwest Coahuila, in the 1950s it was one of the least uninhabitable regions of Mexico, with abundance of wildlife. Don Carlos annually invited the Robles Gil family. It was a paradise for a small child from a big city, Patricio was four years old when he visited Las Pilas, for the first time, the annual trips to this wonderful place marked him and pushed him to commit to the conservation of nature.
The youngest son of Don Carlos, Guillermo was the administrator of the family property, a man with a deep commitment to the land and a great naturalist. In 1984, concerned about the logging exploitation in a nearby mountain range, Madera del Carmen, he asked Patricio's brother, Javier, to inspect how much the pine-oak forest had suffered. Patricio and Gerardo, the younger brother, join the expedition. The three brothers walk with their backpacks for more than a week among the peaks of the Sierra. Loggers had cut down the older pines, but the forest was still alive, with many younger trees growing everywhere. Guillermo's plans were to buy it, and ensure its conservation, he personally put up an endowment of 25 thousand US dollars as collateral, when he couldn’t find donors, he lost his money.
Almost ten years later, in 1993, with the Sierra Madre organization already active. A close friend of Patricio, Raúl Pérez Madero, called him and said: Lorenzo Zambrano, general director of Cemex, the largest cement company in Mexico, wants to talk to you. At the meeting Lorenzo told Patricio, my business partners are telling me that Cemex needs to commit to environmental causes, and I would like to conserve wild lands and protect them in perpetuity, and I want you to present me options, to buy them, at the same time I want you to produce a series of environmental art books to show the world Cemex commitment to nature.
The first 15 books that Patricio produces for Cemex are considered among conservationists an environmental publishing legend. Patricio knew, from the moment he left Lorenzo's office, that Madera's del Carmen was the place to promote. A remote and diverse complex of ecosystems, a place that could be rewild with exceptional results, and that this Mexican mountain was the twin sister of the Chisos Mountain, just across the border in Texas, Big Bend National Park. This Cemex commitment will be a dream come true for the United States Park Service, Mexico will finally protect the other side, that is more beautiful, more diverse, and much bigger mountain range. On another expedition he traveled the Rio Grande on a raft with his older brother. At that time Javier was the director of the first conservation agency of the Mexican government, to set foot in the region. The superintendent of Big Bend National Park, upon knowing of our presence, invited us to have dinner at his house, he recounted the 1944 initiative of President Delano Roosevelt, when he asked the president of Mexico, Manuel Ávila Camacho, to secure the region. with a binational Peace Park. It did not happen.
It took Patricio seven years to convince Cemex, lower-level employees, of the opportunity, importance of El Carmen. In that time, the Ministry of Natural Resources of Mexico, SEMARNAT, declared Madera’s del Carmen as a Flora and Fauna Reserve, and the global organization Conservation International completed the study to include Madera’s del Carmen-Chisos Mountains as one of the 35 HOTSPOTS World Ecoregions, areas of great importance for Biodiversity. When Cemex Finally bought the first 70 thousand hectares, the most important property, the highest mountain pine forest, was already secure by another party.
Patricio remained a few more years advising Cemex, on many issues, he worked to bring some extinct megafauna to the mountain and deserts of the region, like the pronghorn antelope and the desert bighorn sheep. He did create a special advisory board for the El Carmen Initiative, to ensure its good management. He promoted the story in more than 20 international environmental magazines, including National Geographic (ARTICLE EL CARMEN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FEBREO 2002). He worked to create the first Wilderness designation in Latin America at El Carmen, initiative that was presented at the 8th World Wilderness Congress in Anchorage, Alaska, in 2004, where the announcement earned a standing ovation from attendees.
Today the Inactive El Carmen is part of 2 million hectares, Mega Corridor of protected lands. between Mexico and the United States. Cemex owns 140 thousand hectares and is working to recover species such as the desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn, elk, and bison. These actions are one of the greatest Rewilding success stories in the world. When Douglas Thompkins, the controversial philanthropist, that bought so much land in Chile that he divided the country in half and then donated it as protected land to the people of Chile, new about it, at the 8th World Wildlife Congress, not knowing Patricio. he sent him this note.
I was so impressed to see the whole project of the trans-border lands that I told myself I have GOT to go! So beautiful.
Although books are great and inspiring and nothing should be taken away from them, it is the land that counts and there you have scored a 9 if not a 10 and for this I send again hearty congratulations.
Please pass along my "felicitaciones" to all of your colleagues for this fine achievement.
Best regards,
Douglas Tompkins
MAP
This map presents the initiative of a Transboundary conservation Mega corridor between Mexico and the United States. It shows the Rio Bravo or Grande, the two Protected Areas of Flora and Fauna, El Carmen, and the Santa Elena Canyon, on the Mexican side, and the Big Bend National and State Park as well the Wildlife Reserve Black Gap on the US side. There are almost 2 million hectares wilderness, of which 200 thousand hectare corresponds to the El Carmen Flora and Fauna Protection Area of Mexico. Of which Cemex has acquire 140 thousand, ensuring its conservation in perpetuity.
Patricio´s books WEC Award
At the entrance of Cemex headquarters in Monterrey, the company presents only two things, in a small display case, the Books that Patricio had produce, and The WEC Award, a recognition from The World Environmental Center, an impressive Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement. An Award highly sought by Cemex, which they obtained immediately after presenting El Carmen Initiative to the WEC jury.
Rewilding El Carmen
At the beginning of the last century, El Carmen and Big Bend Region was still a paradise for megafauna, herds of bison, packs of wolfs, grizzlies and black bears, the American elk, the pronghorn antelope, desert bighorn sheep, mountain lion, whitetail and mule deer and the rare visit of a jaguar from the south. Before the Cemex appearance at El Carmen, at the end of the 1990´s only four of these large mammals survive: the puma, the two different deer species and the black bear. But this one only in Mexico, in those years and with the protection of some of the Mexican ranchers the black bear return to the south of Texas, this reappearance to the Bing Bend NP was a most wanted recovery. Today thanks to Cemex and Sierra Madre, the desert bighorn sheep has return to this great landscape, and in the fall the seductive beguiling of the American elk it resonates deeply in the remotest canyons of El Carmen.
THE RETURN OF THE PRONGHORN
The Pronghorn Antilope, Antilocapra americana is one of natures most success stories in North America. Millions of these ungulates used to roam, in the prairies of Canada, the United States and Mexico. The arrival of white men pushed them almost to the extinction. It toked good management to accomplish this spectacular recovery, but not so in Mexico, where the three subspecies are still in danger.
One of the first actions that Unidos para la Conservation carried out was the negotiation with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, so that they would support us with a herd of the corresponding subspecies of these antelope, to bring them to the prairies of northern Mexico.
This video shows, Don Guillermo Brittingham telling the story of how he saw pronghorns on his ranch long before they became extinct in the region. You will also be able to see, the first release of pronghorns in Valle Colombia, Coahuila Mexico, of the two that occurred years later.
THE RETURN OF THE DESERT BIG HORN SHEEP TO COAHUILA
In Saltillo, capital of the State of Coahuila, in northern Mexico, in one of the exhibition rooms of the Desert Museum, a phrase was printed in one of its walls, The dream of seeing pronghorns and desert bighorn sheep again. the return of this emblematic species in northern Mexico is a long story, United for Conservation and Sierra Madre accomplish that dream of the Coahuila people, this was around 1998, when a group of sheep were release at the Cemex confinement facility, in El Carmen, for a subsequent release into the wild. Here you can see a video of these animals in their new home, the mountains of the great desert of Coahuila and Chihuahua.
9th WORLD WILDERNESS CONGRESS WILD9
The World Wilderness Congress is the longest-running public environmental forum in the Planet. It started in South Africa by a Zulu elder and a white man. Now forty-five years later the Congress has been held in all five Continents.
Patricio has a strong connection to wilderness, especially those areas that are large in size, in which man have not left a deep mark, and where large predators can still be found. The word Wilderness does not have a really meaningful translation in many languages, especially in Mexico, mainly because is and America-English word, and this bothers Mexicans. Patricio has produced, edited and photograph two different books with this word as title, the first, Wilderness; Earth´s Last Wild Places, a large-format art book that presents the 37 ecoregions, due to their size, the level of ecological integrity and the little human presence. Dr Russell Mittermeier was the scientist behind this initiative, its launch was in collaboration with Cemex, Conservation International, and Sierra Madre.
Around those days in 2003, Russell invited Patricio to the IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, to introduce Vance Martin, president of the Wild Foundation. Patricio´s first encounter with Vance was in the wild, on a Reserve in South Africa, then they return to Durban to attend the Congress. For three days Patricio wandered between the plenary sessions of the Congress, finding no fire in any of the presentations, the spirit of the Natural world was absent. On one of the last days Vance introduces Patricio to his wild colleagues, there he found a group of companions who spoke the same language, the powerful voice of wild nature.
Vance Martin was very impress with the Cemex acquisition of El Carmen and invite Patricio to presented this initiative at the 8th World Wilderness Congress in Anchorage Alaska in 2005. Patricio also invited Ernesto Enkerlin director of Mexico´s National Commission of protected Areas CONANP, as well as the President of Conservation International, Russell Mittermeier, and Armando Garcia from Cemex, together present the El Carmen Initiative. The result of the launch was a standing ovation of all attendees.
The World Wilderness Congress has never been held in Latin America in its 30 years of exitance. After the success in Anchorage, Vance asks Patricio to be his co-leader to take Wild Congress to Mexico. The Wild Foundation and Sierra Madre work for three years to hold this congress in 2009 on the Yucatan Peninsula in the heart of the Mayan civilization, in the City of Merida.
Patricio´s work in those three years was to raise funds to make the congress viable, he convenes conservationist, scientist, corporate leaders, photographers and the artistic communities from Mexico and the world. Patricio bets in the power of art, and did a major investment in visual communication, coordinating and producing a series of art events including a concert with a composition by Philip Glass that presented Frans Lanting’s photo essay ‘Life: A journey through time’. Also presented James Balog’s ‘Extreme Ice Survey’ where he uses using remote cameras to document the world retreat of glaciers, a dramatic climate-change story. Four major photoexhibits where shown at the main hall of the congress, one by National Geographic photographers, a second images by Wild Wonders of Europe, a third photographs of the Mesoamerican Corridor, and the last one by the Look 3 Photo Festival, a space where all delegates could hang up their own images.
He also participated and coordinated a natural’ body-painting ritual involving some important mexican artist and some of the world’s most commimed nature photographers. He comission an artist to do 20 jaguar fiber glass sculptures, that where painted by local artist in colaboration with children with different capasities. WILD9 was amended by the President of Mexico and the world’s leading conservationists, 2000 delagates from 60 countries. The second Wilderness publication was a small, slip case art book, written by Vance Martin and Photograph by Patricio’s, it was launch at WILD 9 Congress.
EL JAGUAR SEÑOR DE LAS SELVAS MAYAS
JAGUAR LORD OF THE MAYAN JUNGELS
This documentary presents the field scientific research of one of the most secretive species on the planet, the Jaguar. For decades the Unidos para la Conservación organization, which worked in rainforest of the southern Yucatan Peninsula, were a team of researchers that capture 25 wild jaguar and collared them with telemetry devices to track their movements, to define and protect the jaguar corridors between National Protected Areas. Patricio´s job was to seek financial support for the program, he photographed the story and produce this award-wining film.
I´M BACK BAJA CALIFORNIA CONDOR
Inspired by the exemplary work of Juan Vargas and Catalina Porras with the California Condor in the northern Baja California peninsula, Patricio joins them to document their success story in bringing this scavenger back to the Sierra San Pedro Mártir National Park, since its extinction in México the seventies, also produce this website to encourage possible donors to commit to adopting one of the fifty condor that fly freely in this mountain range.
This video presents images of the Sierra San Pedro Martyr National Park, its wildlife, and the condor fieldwork team, led by Juan Vargas and Catalina Porras. It was the main visual background when Patricio Robles Gil interview them at The Foro Mar De Cortes conference in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, in November, 2023.
