Formation of a TWS Mexico Chapter nears completion

The Mexican government’s approval of the nonprofit organization, The Wildlife Mexico Chapter TWS Asociación Civil, in Oct. 2023, signals that an official TWS Mexico Chapter is closer to reality.

The approval of this NGO has been a labor of love by multiple players from the U.S. and Mexico, taking decades-worth of planning and discussions. The NGO will ideally become the official TWS Mexico Chapter following upcoming measures including the development of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between TWS and the NGO.

Fidel Hernández, the Vice President of The Wildlife Society and professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, said that interest in a dedicated Mexico Chapter started in the ‘90s but interest would grow and wane.

“The latest attempt to form the Chapter was different,” he said. “The stars seemed to align just by having the right people involved.”

Hernández said that without the dedication of Raul Valdez, an emeritus professor at New Mexico State University and Luis Tarango, a tenured research professor at the Colegio de Postgraduados Campus San Luis Potosí, the Chapter may not have gotten off the ground.

The impetus for the Chapter’s formation was the 2019 National Conference of Wildlife Management and Conservation in Mexico. Former TWS president Gary White and Hernández presented to attendees on TWS publications and various working groups. After the presentation, along with the existing interest of TWS members already residing in Mexico, Valdez and Tarango began taking further initiative to start the Chapter, especially in the hopes of connecting Mexican wildlife biologists and students.

The newly formed Wildlife Mexico Chapter TWS Asociación Civil includes participating professors and students of the Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus San Luis Potosí, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, and Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí.

“The objectives of this nonprofit organization are to bring together professionals, students, technicians, producers, public and private institutions, and others who have an interest in wildlife management and environmental conservation and who promote natural resource sustainable development at the national, regional and community level,” Tarango wrote in a recent issue of the TWS Southwest Section newsletter.

Tarango notes that the next steps are to build an official website for the Mexico Chapter, to invite other individuals and organizations to join the Chapter, to prepare more detailed regulations, to develop an MOU between TWS and the Wildlife Mexico Chapter NGO, and to create a work plan to consolidate the objectives of the Chapter.

“They are so close,” Hernández said.

He hopes that the chapter is only months away from being finalized.