| Office of the Secretary | Contact: Hugh Vickery |
| For Immediate Release: November 25, 2002 | 202-501-4633 |
Secretary Norton Meets with Mexican Counterpart;
Builds on Long History of Cooperation in Conservation
U.S. Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton met today in Mexico City with Mexico's Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources Victor Lichtinger and other senior officials to bolster cooperation between the two countries on natural and cultural resource conservation.
The two secretaries attended the first meeting of the bilateral Working Group on Natural Resources and signed a recently completed joint action plan that encourages exchanges and cooperation among national parks throughout both countries.
Secretary Norton also extended an invitation on behalf of the National Park Service to Mexico's National Commission for Protected Areas (CONANP) to a meeting in March 2003 to discuss establishing and managing sister areas in border regions.
In addition, the secretaries discussed how the United States and Mexico can coordinate efforts to prevent and contain catastrophic wildfires.
"The United States and Mexico have worked together for more than 60 years to address natural resource issues that affect both our nations, including the wildlife that migrate across our border," Norton said. "We hope to build on this close relationship, learning from each other and finding new ways to cooperate together on conservation."
Norton highlighted some recent examples of cooperation such as a new initiative to reintroduce endangered black-footed ferrets to Chihuahua, Mexico, efforts to eradicate invasive salt cedar along the border, and joint monitoring of 400 species of birds in the San Pedro Basin.
The U.S. delegation to the working group meeting included senior scientists and policy makers from the Interior Department, USDA Forest Service, U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. embassy in Mexico.
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