Backyard Habitats Workshops take place in Sister Border Cities
By Azucena Garza

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True to the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development, Punto Verde promoted Sustainability during 2005 in many different fronts. Through a collaboration agreement with National Wildlife Federation (NWF), and with funding support from EPA (Region VI), Punto Verde staff trained teachers from the border region on the Backyard Habitat program, developed by NWF, as part of a training plan that included other Mexican States beyond the border region.

The workshops were held at 4 sister cities in the border region of Coahuila-Tamaulipas-Texas, where 160 Teachers learned how they can work with their students to build wildlife habitats in their school backyards and be used as outdoor classrooms. Punto Verde partnered with various organizations to offer these workshops in other border cities in Sonora, Baja California, as well as Mexico City.

Other programs from Punto Verde include the creation of learning communities for the staff of HSBC Banks in Mexico; and training workshops with over 900 teachers from the public education system for the State of Nuevo Leon.

During 2005, Punto Verde partnered with Cecadesu, ECOAH (Coahuila State's Institute of Ecology), Conalep, Ponguiguiola, ARAN (Ambos Nogales Revegetation Partnership), Probea, NWF, Bat Conservation International, University of Arizona and Outward Bound.

For more information about Punto Verde visit http://www.puntoverde.com.mx