From October 28th through November 1st San Blas will once again celebrate National Conservation Week, an activity that was discontinued in 2011. It’s back and with every intention of staying in order to augment the development of environmental education and the conservation of the Port of San Blas and its adjacent communities.

This event, organized by the office of the Isla Isabel National Park, part of the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP), was revived thanks to the initiatives of two environmental teachers, Caitlin Chew and Natasha Darre, who both volunteer at said office.

“This year’s overall theme is the conservation of our biodiversity, but since San Blas hosts so many migratory birds we want to focus on that as well. The idea is to involve more people in environmental education, so the citizens can learn about the mangroves and the other many important elements of this region,” said Natasha Darre.

Among the activities to be held are bird watching events at the Crocodile Reserve and La Tovara, which, by the way, are the only activities that will entail a fee, though it will be a token rate if you take into consideration the original price of this type of expedition. These will be held on Fridays at 3 p.m. and Saturdays at 6:45 a.m., led by professionals Mark Stackhouse and Francisco García.

The majority of the activities will take place in the afternoons, including the expos, as well as the conferences, chats and other events aimed at sharing knowledge. The mornings will be taken up with workshops with students at the different schools.

One of the objectives is to choose a signature species for the San Blas National Conservation Week, which will be done via a drawing contest among the children. The Blue-Footed Booby is already the image of the Isla Isabel National Park.

“We hope to get tourists interested in visiting San Blas. We’re very thankful to the Riviera Nayarit CVB because we need to get the information out about our events and attract more people. San Blas depends a lot on ecotourism and it’s very beneficial to us when the citizens are aware of the resources we have, that way we can have better guides and tourism service providers,” added Darre.

For more information please contact the organizers at [email protected] or call 045 (323) 117 18 29.