The El Carmen Project, located in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico, is featured as one of the top five most important remaining wilderness areas in the world in Wilderness – Earth’s Last Wild Places. Through El Carmen, CEMEX offers a conservation model aimed at creating a long-term preservation plan for ecosystems, species and biological corridors.

Several years ago, CEMEX began working with Agrupación Sierra Madre, a Mexico-based NGO, to facilitate the conservation of this 75,000 hectare ecosystem, most of which is part of the Maderas del Carmen Flora and
Fauna Protection Area.

CEMEX is working on an international basis with entities including government organizations, universities, non-government organizations, and an advisory board of conservationists, scientists and local ranchers with experience in conservation and wildlife management.

The program has resulted in the reintroduction of desert bighorn sheep after a 60-year absence, the monitoring and managing of the black bear population, and the foundation of a long-term management plan to restore and recover an area that is home to more than 500 plant species, 400 bird species, 70 mammal species, and 50 types of reptiles and amphibians.