An agreement to protect 6,000 acres of critical habitat for the endangered Thick-Billed Parrot in northern Mexico has accomplished far more than just the safeguarding of these vibrantly beautiful red and green birds.

When the ink dried December 14, 2000 on the final contract to stop logging on a large tract of virgin forest land 100 miles south of the Arizona border in Chihuahua, the home to half of the world's remaining Thick-Billed Parrots was saved. At the same time, a rural Mexican agricultural community decided to take a new approach to managing its land for a sustainable future.

According to representatives of The Wildlands Project and Pronatura, the international conservation groups that spearheaded the protection, the 75 residents of Ejido Cebadillas — a private land cooperative that owned the parrot habitat — executed a notable leap of faith when they signed away substantial short-term logging revenues in lieu of a fifteen-year conservation plan that only guaranteed them 50% of what they could have made. Yet, a unanimous vote sealed the deal.

Due to the educational efforts of Pronatura, Mexico's largest conservation group, and The Wildlands Project, a group focused on the "rewilding" of North America, the unlikely concept of forfeiting immediate logging revenues for future income based on Nature preservation made sense to the financially-strapped Ejidatorios. Protecting irreplaceable natural resources to secure a more sustainable future, they finally agreed, was worth the risk.

An important moment in the Ejido's decision to embrace a deal promoted by outside interests came when an elderly woman swayed those in doubt in the deliberations. She reminded her neighbors that she "wouldn't be around in fifteen years, but my children will be." She said those were the ones who would benefit from protecting the land now. The logic sunk in.

The agreement includes cash payments for half of the lost logging income and construction of three cabins to house future eco-tourists. In addition, a forestry study will be funded for the Ejido's timberland outside the protected area, which could result in a certified sustainable logging plan that will increase timber values and future income for the Ejido.

The uniqueness of the agreement was not lost on Mexican federal officials, who have indicated the protection plan could be viewed as a model for protection of other ecologically-important regions and confirmed the possibility that Ejido Cebadillas could one day become a federally-protected conservation area.