Description - in 2010, the Turtle Conservancy returned to the Reserva de la Biosfera de Mapimí in the state of Durango. The impetus: bolson tortoise Gopherus flavomarginatus conservation. We are working our way through the purchasing process to obtain approximately 12,000 acres of prime Gopherus flavomarginatus habitat. The property borders el Instituto Nacional de Ecología (INECOL) and may contain up to 50% of the remaining Gopherus flavomarginatus in the wild.
The property of interest is owned by many people under the ejido system, where communal land is shared by the people of the community. This makes purchasing the land much more difficult. During the trip Eric Goode, along with key players in the deal, surveyed the property from the land and the sky, searched for tortoises, and met the ejido members during an asamblea. During the asamblea the ejido members asked questions and voted to sell or not sell their portion of the entire property.
We learned a lot from this trip. There remains a lot of hard work to accomplish this conservation goal to create the Fundación de la Tortuga Grande.
