NATURAL RESOURCES
In 2006, the National Park Service signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mexico's National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (CONANP). This agreement extends for five years a highly successful cross-border program of technical exchange and cooperation dating back to 1987 (the NPS and Mexico had been working together informally for many decades prior to then). The NPS and CONANP also signed in 2006 a “Joint Declaration of Sister Park Partnerships,” officially designating seven sister area relationships between the two countries.
Under the Sister Park initiative, NPS sites provide their Mexican counterparts with training in a variety of fields, help set up monitoring protocols, develop interpretive materials, and in one case, have provided a sister park with surplus U.S. firefighting equipment. Mexican parks, in return, provide the NPS with much needed assistance in controlling invasive species, fighting wild land fires, monitoring of shared species, and more.
In February 2008, NPS and CONANP held a meeting of all the U.S. and Mexican participants in the Sister Park program, along with many U.S. government agency and NGO partners, at the Grand Canyon National Park. More information on this meeting can be found here: (NPS-CONANP Meeting).
Based on the Grand Canyon workshop, NPS and CONANP are currently developing a workplan to outline priority areas of cooperation between the two agencies in the years 2009-2010.
CULTURAL RESOURCES
In 1998, the NPS signed a MOU with Mexico's National Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH), authorizing a five-year program of technical exchange and cooperation in the stewardship of shared cultural heritage. This MOU was renewed for another five years in 2003 and is currently undergoing renewal in 2008. A variety of successful technical exchange projects and activities have taken place since then. Planned and accomplished activities under the MOU include:
• NPS-INAH cooperative activities for the preservation of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
• Seminars and training on the preservation of earthen architecture
• Cooperative training in the control of illegal trafficking of cultural heritage.
U.S.-Mexico Sonoran and Chihuahuan Desert Initiatives
Big Bend National Park and Mexico Border Parks
Partners in Protection of the Chihuahuan Desert
Mexico's National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) (Spanish)
National Biodiversity Commission (In Spanish)
INAH-National Institute for Anthropology and History (in Spanish)
U.S/Mexico/Canada Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and Management
Proceedings of the 8th U.S./Mexico Border States Conference on Recreation, Parks and Wildlife
