The first approach in Chiapas was the signing of the “Declaration of Merida” on March 13th, 2006. This commits the South-Southeast Region (Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan) to the establishment of a State Strategy for each of the states involved. In the South-Southeast region, the participation in the Small Grants Program and the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor has been crucial to the process.

In the state of Chiapas, the Institute for Sustainable Development in Mesoamerica A.C. (IDESMAC) is responsible for carrying out the activities of the General Coordination of the State Study, with the support of the Office of Environment, Housing and Urban Development and the Institute of Natural History and Ecology.

In December 2008, the “3rd Environmental Authorities Meeting on State Strategies for Biodiversity of the Region South-Southeast of Mexico” was held in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. In attendance were authorities in ecology from the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Oaxaca and Veracruz, and from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), Petroleum Mexicanos (PEMEX), and the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor-Mexico (MBC-M). All the participants agreed to effectively support and implement the State Biodiversity Strategy and that, insofar as possible, the aforementioned institutions will join efforts. In Chiapas, the Office of Environment and Housing undertook to publish their study in the first half of 2009 and to begin implementation of their State Biodiversity Strategy.

Currently, they are reviewing the final versions of the contributions of the State Study by CONABIO and IDESMAC. There is an average written progress of 90%.

State Study 90%