Tierra Blanca, Gto. November 24, 2016.- The University of Guanajuato, through the Program of Environmental Handling and Sustainability, sums to the organizations that contribute to preserve the biodiversity in the northeastern part of the state, by participating in the Third Encounter of Sustainability and Culture of the Sierra Gorda of Guanajuato "Tres Biznagas".

At the Interdisciplinary Center of the Northeast of the University of Guanajuato (CINUG), began the works that the Rector of Campus Irapuato-Salamanca, Dr. Armando Gallegos Muñoz, declared open. He also reaffirmed the commitment of the universitarians to share knowledge and projects that contribute on improving the quality of life in the region.

Besides CINUG, the cities of Xichú, San Luis de la Paz, Victoria and Doctor Mora will be alternate venues of the activities' program which is composed by workshops, conferences, and a forum of experts in the topic of preservation of the natural resources, to be held on November 24 to 26.

There are 177 decreed and protected natural areas and the Sierra Gorda was the most recent inclusion in the list. The National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP) a decentralized organism of the Environment Department, reports that there are 199 localities that sum more than twenty thousand inhabitants within the mentioned protected area.

Sierra Gorda comprehends the cities of San Luis de la Paz, Victoria, Xichú, Atarjea and Santa Catarina and its importance relies that 53% of its richness in ecosystems in Guanajuato is concentrated in that place, where there are 122 useful spaces for population.

The region has 26 flora species identified by SEMARNAT as threatened or endangered species and 413 fauna species, from which thirty are endemic and 49 are endangered. The biosphere of Sierra Gorda is part of a migratory route of the monarch butterfly.

In contrast, the natural zone is an environment characterized by migration, a depressed economy and the greater level or margination in the state, where they have detected problems such as deforestation, poaching, forest resources extraction, inadequate agricultural and livestock handling and the exploitation of stone material banks.

Facing this scenario, the University and organisms such as the National Forest Commission, CONANP, the Department of Agricultural and Rural Development, CINUG, Nana Ubó Sierra Gorda Association, the reserve of the Sierra Gorda of Guanajuato, the Indigenous Cultural Fund, the Mexican Center of Renewable Energies and the cities in the Region, exchange doings and proposals for the improvement of this important region.

Participated at the inauguration of the encounter, the Municipal President of Tierra Blanca, Ing. Ramiro González Colín; CINUG's Coordinator, Ing. Alfredo Mozqueda Córdoba; M.A. Dante Acal Sánchez, responsible of Environmental Handling and Sustainability at UG, as well as representatives of the northeastern cities, civil associations and governmental organisms.