Niparajá is a Mexican nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve the natural heritage of Baja California Sur through concerted actions based on scientific principles, for the benefit of local communities and for current and future generations.

 

History

 

Until recent decades, the ruggedness of Baja California Sur’s wild beauty has been its protection.  To visit the breeding lagoons of the grey whale, to witness the most impressive display of cave paintings in the Western Hemisphere, or to camp on blinding beaches and dive in the teeming Gulf of California, visitors needed to cross difficult waters by boat, or to drive for days over treacherous one-lane tracks through the desert.  The arrival of air service and lava-taming pavement ended Baja California’s isolation forever, and lovers of the peninsula came to realize that the land no longer protected itself.

 

In 1990, a group of concerned citizens, both national and foreign-born, founded an environmental association they named Niparajá, after the creation god of the Pericús, southernmost of the extinct Baja California tribes.  Recognizing the urgency of protecting Baja California Sur’s natural heritage, they moved on numerous fronts at once, participating in forums, helping formulate management plans for coastal parks, protected islands and the state’s biosphere reserves, leading clean-up campaigns of beaches, creating artifical reefs to promote marine diversity.  Most significantly, in 1998 they published Diagnóstico Ambiental de Baja California Sur, a compilation of scientific papers on natural resources that continues to serve as a reference, a difusion of biological knowledge and a baseline for measuring future change.

 

         Niparajá continues to be maintained by people dedicated to the Baja California peninsula, the Gulf of California, and especially to the natural and cultural richness of Baja California Sur.

 

Our projects reflect priorities that extend beyond Baja California’s natural heritage, to encompass the social and economic growth of its present and future inhabitants.

 

Current Sources of Funding

 

·    The Nature Conservancy

·    Marisla Foundation

·    The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

·    Sperling Foundation

·    Fundación Mexicana para la Educación Ambiental

·    United Nations Foundation

·    Walton Family Foundation

·    International Community Foundation

·    George A. Binney Conservation Foundation.

·    SEDESOL –INDESOL

·    Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza WWF

·    Global Greengrants Fund

·    Project AWARE Foundation

 

 

Associates

 

We currently collaborate with the following institutions and organizations:

 

· The Nature Conservancy

· Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas.

· Delegación en Baja California Sur de la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales

· Fundación Mexicana para la Educación Ambiental

· Ayuntamiento de Loreto

· Ejido San José de la Noria

· Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur

 

 

 

Last update

May, 2005