CONTRIBUTION
The Program for the Conservation of Mexican Bats (PCMM) was set up in 1994 in the face of mounting evidence of their local decline, with the aim of protecting and recovering the country’s bat population and its habitat. The program has enjoyed the support and participation of numerous institutions and specialists at home and abroad, and has carried forward initiatives in at least fourteen states within the Mexican Republic.
The PCMM follows a three-pronged strategy comprising research, education and conservation actions. Research provides fundamental input for the other two lines of activity, and joins with environmental education in providing the material and impetus for conservation actions.
Among the achievements it can point to in its fifteen years of work are the recovery of several bat colonies, the stabilization of many more that were previously under threat, the discovery of species once considered extinct and the creation of the Latin American Network for Bat Conservation. The program ascribes its success to its international links and the interaction of its three strategy lines, and has been used as a model for similar bat conservation projects in other Latin American countries. In 2005, it established the non-governmental organization Bioconciencia. Bioconservación, Educación y Ciencia, A. C. as a means to enlarge the scope of its interest and activities to other species and habitats within Mexico.