Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo
Founder, Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P.
Founder of the Sierra Gorda Ecological Group with local citizens in 1987 and named the first federal Director of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve from 1997 to 2010. Ex-President Ernesto Zedillo decreed the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in 1997 in response to the local grassroots leadership and designated Ruiz Corzo as the Federal Director of the Biosphere Reserve, where she served for 13 years. With her leadership, the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, one third of Queretaro State, has gained a global level for protection, is a world tourism destination and a living laboratory for sustainable development.
Today she leads an alliance of five grassroots organizations to create regional opportunities in productive diversification for rural producers which include ecotourism, reforestations, soil restoration, ecological livestock management, and community environmental education to benefit rural communities and in turn offer a basket of ecosystem products on the over-the-counter voluntary carbon offset market that benefits hundreds of property owners.
The Sierra Gorda Ecological Group (GESG in Spanish) has set the standard in Mexico for a “Conservation Economy”, establishing a new paradigm in natural protected area management with widespread civil participation. Pati is a globally recognized Social Entrepreneur of Ashoka, Schwab Foundation, and associate laureate of the Rolex Prize for Enterprise.
