PIF Public Awareness Award

July 6, 2023 | Posted in General News

Photo by Jesús Franco

A BRIEF REPORT BY JESÚS FRANCO ON PIF PUBLIC AWARENESS AWARD FOR MUSEO DE LAS AVES DE MÉXICO, JUNE 3, 2023:

On June 3, 2023, Jesús Franco of the Rio Grande Joint Venture and American Bird Conservancy presented, on behalf of Partners In Flight (PIF), the 2022 Partners In Flight Public Awareness Award to the Museo de las Aves de Mexico (MUSAVE) in the City of Saltillo.

The PIF Award category for Public Awareness honors an individual or group that contributes significantly to increasing the public’s awareness and appreciation for birds, their habitats, or the need for conservation.

Museo de Las Aves de México (Museum of Birds of Mexico) was selected to receive a Group PIF Public Awareness Award for its successful environmental education program for the conservation of Mexico’s national avifauna. Founded in 1993, the Museum’s main objective is “To Know in order to Value and Preserve” (Conocer para Valorar y Conservar) because nobody loves or values what they do not know! Its dioramas and exhibitions, which portray the natural history of Mexican avifauna in the country’s major ecosystems, are of incalculable value for Mexican society because no other museum exhibits the incredible wealth of bird species present in Mexico. Its collections have benefited many other fields of science and humanities, used by authors of field guides, artists, law enforcement agencies, planners, and ecologists. As an institution outside the federal government, MUSAVE is also involved in conservation of biodiversity through providing awareness and protection of sites of high biological importance, including the Museum’s nature reserves, La India and El Taray, which protect endangered endemics.

The award ceremony started with welcoming words from the museum’s director and science staff and a video detailing the history of the museum as well as its impact. Jesús next gave a brief presentation about PIF, including its conservation and education work in the Americas and information on the history of the PIF awards. All 2022 award winners from the US and Latin America were acknowledged during the presentation. The ceremony then culminated with the presentation of the 2022 Public Awareness Award to MUSAVE. The pleasantly surprised and moved Museum founder Aldegundo Garza de León received the award only to immediately turn around and recognize the Museum staff and board of directors for this award. All were beaming with pride and expressed their gratitude to PIF for this award.

The ceremony was followed by a tour of the museum’s exhibition areas guided by an army of very knowledgeable youth volunteer guides. Mr. Garza de León himself also accompanied the tour and  delighted the audience with amazing stories of the adventures he encountered through his many years in the field collecting samples of the unique avifauna of the country in some of the most remote areas of Mexico.

Photo by MUSAVE

Photo by MUSAVE