GEM awarded $500,000 grant
Money will fund partnership with Mexican communities, universities

June 24, 2005

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The Global Environmental Management Education Center (GEM) has won a $500,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help rural communities in Mexico manage their watersheds in healthy, sustainable ways, GEM Director Victor Phillips announced Friday. The grant is for three years beginning fall 2005.

 Phillips, who is the principal investigator on the grant, explained that the program will formally train 10 Mexicans, two of whom will receive master’s degrees in watershed management from UWSP. With the help of GEM staff, students and partners, an additional 100-150 local residents will be trained through a series of interactive workshops, field days, and practical learning experiences in Oaxaca, in southern Mexico.

GEM, a center within the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, will work with partners in Mexico including Estudios Rurales y Asesoría Campesina (ERA), Oaxaca; Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey – Campus Monterrey (ITESM, or Monterrey Tech); and Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo (UACh), Texcoco, MX (just east of Mexico City).

The partnership will focus on non-consumptive forest uses in several rural communities of the Rio Grande watershed in Oaxaca’s Sierra Norte region, through watershed management and agroforestry that takes into account the value of ecosystem services in providing clean water, protecting biodiversity and sequestering carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

“The goal of the grant project is to educate as many Oaxacans as possible in the areas of sustainable development through effective watershed resource management, so that the positive outcomes will long outlive the three-year project,” said Brian Kermath, GEM research associate.

Coincidentally, Kermath, who will help Phillips manage the grant, returned last week from Mexico where he met with non-government organizations and educational leaders on other GEM initiatives, including its GEM Student Ambassadors Program.

GEM was launched in 2000 to pioneer and apply practical learning methods and technology to solve natural resource problems by linking faculty, students, and citizens worldwide.  The center has attracted nearly $10 million in funding to date. Major grants include awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Agency for International Development.

GEM has developed ongoing partnerships in China, Kenya, South Africa, Mexico and other countries. Its International Seminar on Watershed Management, held each of the past four years in Wisconsin, has drawn participants from 30 countries. A GEM “Critical Issues” International Seminar Series held on the UWSP campus is free and open to the public, with the upcoming year’s theme of indigenous knowledge for sustainable development presented by Native American and other indigenous experts from overseas.

These international links are important to building a sustainable future here in Wisconsin and around the world, Phillips said. People have the same needs everywhere for clean water, adequate food and shelter, means of livelihood, peace and security, he said. By working together and learning from each other, people will be better able to achieve these goals for their families and communities.

The latest grant will help GEM staff, students and collaborators continue international work and add to UWSP’s long tradition in leading-edge conservation education, Phillips said

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