By Rick LoBello, Education Curator

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Almost every year someone from the national media contacts me asking for information on the long-proposed US Mexico International Park which would include protected areas on both sides of the border including Big Bend National Park in Texas and three adjacent protected areas in Coahuila and Chihuahua Mexico.  Over the years the El Paso Zoo has been supportive of this effort in a variety of ways including participating in a international transboundary conservation workshop in Montana and sending Zoo staff to help Big Bend National Park with exotic plant removal along the Rio Grande.

Recently Audubon Magazine published an article by Francisco Cantú entitled “The Grand Dream of an International Park with Mexico Meets a Complicated Reality with the subtitle Much has changed since F.D.R. called for a great transboundary conservation area spanning the Rio Grande, but the vision lives on. Is it an idea whose time has come—or come and gone?

Cantú does a great job summarizing his answer to the question, but I would like to give my take on how I would answer.The grand dream for the US and Mexico is an idea whose time has come and gone only if the people living on the border who can influence change continue to ignore the great possibilities.  To the skeptics and those who are not interested in what the dream can mean to border relations, I say if you are happy with the current state of affairs that the US and Mexico have with immigration challenges, economic and environmental challenges and the drug war then do nothing.  But if you want to see change on our border one way that change can happen is by encouraging relationships between the people of both countries. A Big Bend Rio Bravo Transboundary Protected Area could help in many ways, let me explain.

The Transboundary Protected Area, originally called Big Bend International Park, was first proposed to the US Government by Albert William Dorgan (1887-1985), of Castolon, Texas (in Big Bend National Park) when he wrote a letter to Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes–with a brief plan for the establishment of an international park on the Rio Grande.  Not long after the first U.S. and Mexico agreement was signed at a joint international meeting in El Paso, Texas on November 24, 1935.

What most people do not know is how President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the driving force behind the entire international project.   In a letter to His Excellency General Manual Avila Camacho, President of the United Mexican States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote “I do not believe that this undertaking in the Big Bend (referring to the establishment of Big Bend National Park) will be complete until the entire park area in this region on both sides of the Rio Grande forms one great international park.”  Seventy-eight years later it is obvious to those who are aware of the lands on both sides of the border that the undertaking is a bit closer to completion but there is still a long way to go.  A bigger question is simply this – which way do we go in getting in finally get the job done? 

What is really important here is how President Roosevelt envisioned that such a protected area would become a permanent monument and symbol of peace between the US and Mexico and a meeting ground where the people of both countries and citizens from all parts of the world could come together to learn about each other’s culture while coming to  better understand the natural world that they all share.

Having lived on the US Mexico border now over four decades I have yet to see a permanent meeting ground for our two countries besides the international bridges where people rarely interact with each other except when they try to maintain their spots in line.

Why is this effort important?

An international designation would help the people of both countries build stronger partnerships along the US Mexico border.   People visiting the international protected area would meet each other on the trails, at evening programs, campgrounds and in dining areas connected to motels and hotels.  The protected area could also host international meetings of all kinds where friendships could begin and develop into meaningful relationships over time.  No potential partnership and collaborative effort can happen unless people get to know each other and trust each other, and an international protected area could help bring people from both sides of the border together in the perfect setting, one dominated by nature.  

An international designation would also be an example of how our governments and citizens can pursue through cooperation and collaboration a great humanitarian project that celebrates the border region and helps both countries improve their perceptions of what a border is and what a border can be.

An international designation that could enhance the protection of the Big Bend Rio Bravo region would help to call attention to the importance of collaboratively protecting the entire Big Bend and adjoining areas in Coahuila and Chihuahua and their fragile environments from development projects including the rest of the adjacent borderlands.  Protecting this fragile desert mountain region and its wildlife and culture is important to the quality of life of people who live there and to ecotourism which is important to the economy of both countries.

An international designation would help both countries better address key issues such as water and air quality, control of invasive species, wildlife protection, management of wildland fire, the economy and high on the list immigration issues.  The area would become a permanent monument and symbol of peace between the U.S. and Mexico, one that will celebrate the friendship between the two countries and be a meeting ground where the people of both countries and citizens from all parts of the world could come together to learn about each other’s culture while coming to better understand the natural world that they all share.

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Photos –
Cover – Tony Webster, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Top – Cam Miller, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Middle – Robert Hensley, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Bottom – Gary Nored, Wikimedia Creative Commons