The certified ecotourism project with environmental education within the UMA Potrero de Mulas provides an alternative option for the tourist affluent that the Municipality of San Sebastián del Oeste receives, offering lodging services in rustic and ecological cabins and camping areas with low environmental impact, as well as recreational and environmental education activities.

The protection of an area of 3781 hectares that comprise the UMA Potrero de Mulas, which provide feeding, reproduction, breeding and refuge areas for the region's wildlife, in addition to directly protecting the plant species present in its territory.

Reasons for the Project

The present project of Environmental Services, Ecotourism and Environmental Education, is carried out as a complement to the diverse activities of exploitation, conservation and sustainable development in the UMA Potrero de Mulas through the creation and conditioning of camping areas and lodging in rustic cabins, interpretive trails for flora and fauna observation, cycling routes, adventure tourism (zip line, rappel, rock climbing Via Ferrata), bird watching and jaguar and puma reproduction.

Project Objective

Diversify the sustainable use of natural resources in the Potrero de Mulas UMA through low environmental impact management programs to conserve the site's biodiversity.

General Description of the Project

The project UMA Potrero de Mulas (S.P.R DE R.L.), was integrated with the surface of forests and jungles of small properties in the Municipality of San Sebastian del Oeste, Jalisco; Small owners organized in a society of rural production, that to date gather 3781 hectares with the vision of achieving the sustainability of those involved in the project through the execution of sustainable programs of timber and non-timber forest management, wildlife, reproduction of fauna and flora, the supply of hydrological environmental services, environmental education and research, certifying the good management of the forest (NORM NMX-AA-143-SCFI-2008) according to the General Law of Sustainable Forest Development, the General Law of Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection.

Social Benefits

The certified ecotourism project with environmental education within the UMA Potrero de Mulas provides an alternative option for the affluent tourism received by the Municipality of San Sebastián del Oeste, offering lodging services in rustic and ecological cabins and camping areas with low environmental impact, as well as recreational and environmental education activities. The sustainable-certified use of an area of 3781 hectares comprising the Potrero de Mulas UMA, which provide feeding, reproduction, breeding, and refuge areas for the region's wildlife, in addition to directly protecting the plant species present in the region's territory.

Because Potrero de Mulas UMA is located within the Natural Protected Area of the Cuenca Alimentadora del Distrito Nacional de Riego 043, at the headwaters of two microbasins, those of Arroyo el Limón and Arroyo la Bulera, the sustainable use, protection, conservation, and restoration of the UMA's forest ecosystem generates important hydrological environmental services for the region; in addition, the forest mass in its three strata provides environmental services through carbon capture, that is, oxygen production.

The ecotourism project is designed to operate with minimal environmental impact, respecting the ecosystem's carrying capacity or resilience.