Connecting Territories: From Biodiversity Week in Cali (COL) to Community Action in Costalegre (MX)

At a time when global environmental challenges demand urgent solutions, events such as Biodiversity Week in Cali and the CEIBA Summit mark a turning point.  Presented by NaturaTech, with the valuable leadership of C Minds and the support of BID LAB, these spaces not only bring together leaders, scientists, entrepreneurs, and communities, but also seek to align knowledge, innovation, and financing around a shared goal: to protect biodiversity and transform our economies toward sustainable and regenerative models. For Sierra A Mar, which promotes conservation, ecosystem restoration, and community development projects from the Costalegre region of Jalisco, participating in and learning from these global initiatives is not an end in itself, but a way to strengthen the fieldwork that the organization carries out alongside local communities. Among very meaningful dialogues generated in Cali during Biodiversity Week, we highlight those referring to the essential role that coastal territories and their communities play in the fight against biodiversity loss and the impacts of climate change.

At the CEIBA Summit, emphasis was placed on the need to align local leadership, financing, scientific knowledge, and technology to accelerate solutions that protect critical ecosystems and generate social well-being. This vision is central to Sierra A Mar, which has committed to building strong partnerships with community leaders, cooperatives, ejidos, and local youth, recognizing that conservation is only sustainable when those who inhabit the territory actively participate in its design and implementation. One of the most powerful messages to emerge from the CEIBA Summit was that technology, when put at the service of nature and people, can amplify the impact of local actions. In Costalegre, Sierra A Mar is exploring options for integrating innovative tools to strengthen projects, with the understanding that these tools do not replace the wisdom and leadership of communities, but rather complement them, enhancing the fieldwork that has been the cornerstone of Sierra A Mar's programs.

In Mexico, there are inspiring examples of how these tools are already transforming conservation and ecosystem management:

• Monitoring mangroves with drones and remote sensors:
  Research by the UNAM Institute of Biology has shown that drones can accurately map the coverage and health of mangroves, enabling faster and more effective decisions for their restoration. In the state of Nayarit, the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) and local communities have used drones to monitor hard-to-reach areas in estuaries, helping to reduce illegal deforestation.

• Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) for the conservation of forests and wetlands:
  CONAFOR's Forest Monitoring Program, in collaboration with the World Resources Institute (WRI), integrates satellite imagery and GIS to identify and report changes in land use. This tool has enabled communities and authorities to act more quickly in response to deforestation and forest fires.

• Participatory digital platforms:
  The Naturalista platform (part of iNaturalist, promoted in Mexico by CONABIO) has been key to documenting more than 9 million biodiversity observations made by citizens, scientists, and students. In coastal regions such as Jalisco and Oaxaca, fishing communities use it to report sightings of key species, strengthening local conservation programs. A recent study on Ecological Informatics points out that community participation through digital platforms increases biodiversity data coverage by up to 40% in rural areas.

The dialogues in Cali, both during Biodiversity Week and at the CEIBA Summit, emphasize that the future of biodiversity depends on connecting scales: the global with the local, the scientific with the community, the technological with the cultural. In Costalegre, this perspective guides the work of Sierra A Mar: weaving networks between communities, science, and technology to generate solutions that protect ecosystems and strengthen the social fabric. As the CEIBA conclusions point out, successful conservation in Latin America requires territories that learn to manage their biodiversity as a vital asset for inclusive development. For Sierra A Mar, this means continuing to build bridges between global forums and work in the field, demonstrating that the future of biodiversity is largely at stake in the coasts, wetlands, and mangroves that sustain local life.