Executive Summary
An international team of 29 scientists from 19 institutions conducted a biodiversity
survey inside the Sierra La Laguna Biosphere Reserve in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
This eight-day expedition was undertaken at the request of and in collaboration with
the Mexican Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) to document the
diversity encountered on ca. 1,235 acres of land currently petitioned for use as the open
pit gold mine project Los Cardones. From December 4th to 11th of 2015 the participating
scientists documented the presence of 877 species, including 381 plants, 29 mammals,
77 birds, 366 insects, and 24 reptiles and amphibians. The majority of this diversity was
found associated with the La Junta riparian system at the core of the proposed mine
site. Twenty-nine species, protected under Mexican law due to their inclusion on the
endangered species list (NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010), were discovered inside the
project footprint, as well as 107 species endemic to the Cape Region.
