The project area is whithin marismas nacionales federal natural protected located in the southern portion of the state of nayarit

This $2,819,808 federal Project Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service under the North American Wetlands Conservation Fund (CFDA 15.623) program will fund wetlands restoration and enhancement activities in the Marismas Nacionales Biosphere Reserve in Nayarit, Mexico. The primary products and services to be delivered include:

Restoring the natural hydrology across 2,756 hectares (6,807 acres) to rehabilitate 1,200 hectares (2,964 acres) of degraded mangrove swamps and increase productivity of intertidal wetlands for migratory waterfowl and shorebirds. Key activities involve repairing culverts and maintaining water flow along roads crossing the wetland areas, which have contributed to habitat degradation. The project aims to mitigate the impacts of infrastructure development and restore critical wetland ecosystems to support wildlife conservation and local community livelihoods dependent on the wetland resources.

The sub-awardee, Ducks Unlimited De Mexico (DUMAC), is a non-profit organization with extensive experience managing large-scale wetlands conservation projects in Mexico through federal grants. DUMAC will lead the implementation of the hydrological restoration and habitat enhancement activities under this 2-year project.

IT is a priority wetland according to the national waterfowl and shorebirds strategies along the north pacific coast. IT is a ramsar site, a whsrn site under the category of international importance and an IBA. IT is an important biological corridor located in a transition area between the nearctic and neotropical ECO-regions and accounts for 10% of the mangrove swamps in the country. Wetlands in the project area consist of shallow estuarine wetlands with emergent vegetation, mangrove swamps and intertidal flats that provides the habitat productivity that serves as foraging resources for aquatic birds and other wildlife species. The area of marismas nacionales have been affected by a series of embankment paved or dirt roads crossing the wetlands with the consequent modification of the hydroperiod causing the loss of extensive natural coastal ecosystems. Recently, we have identified the loss of 1,200 has 2,964 acres of mangrove swamps in the area of unin DE corrientes, in the south portion of marismas nacionales. In 2022, the category 3 hurricane roselyn HIT the area, causing severe floods that, due to the sedimentation caused by the bad engineering design of roads perpendicular to the coast and the lack of maintenance, interrupted the natural water flow, causing the floods remained in the area for more than four months, resulting in the death of black mangrove.despite the development of many planning efforts, there have been few on the ground projects to address the problems identified as part of those planning processes. According to the management plan, since 2008, as a result of one of these planning workshops, semarnat identified the reduction of freshwater flows and sedimentation of rivers, in conjunction with the roads that run perpendicular to the coast, as one of the main problems that are causing the death of mangroves, sedimentation problems in the coastal flood plains and salinization of the soils, due to changes in the hydrodynamics of the system. This degradation process, is the result of the poor maintenance of the culverts along the embankment roads that cross-wetland areas. These culverts should allow the laminar flow of water on both sides of the road. But unfortunately, the lack of maintenance of these culverts result in habitat degradation and limit the quality of the remaining wetlands. In a change detection analysis carried out by conanp in 2010, IT is evident that the mangrove degradation process within the project area started in the 90S, with important increments per year up to now. Therefore, there is an urgent need to mitigate the effects of this type of infrastructure on wetland areas. With this project, we will continue addressing the identified wetland restoration needs, which is imperative to secure the long-term conservation of the ecological values of the area. This proposal is considering the hydrological restoration of 2,756 has 6,807 acres to restore (1,200 has) (2,964 acres) of mangrove swamps and increase the productivity of the intertidal wetlands as foraging and resting areas for the distribution of priority wintering waterfowl and shorebirds species to achieve this, we will work in the culverts along the road running from the town union DE corrientes to the intersection to the road to mexcaltitan. This embankment paved-road was built in the early 80S and since then, the culverts have not received the proper maintenance, accelerating the accretion process and increasing the interstitial salinity on the sediments that consequently caused the death of 1,200 has 2,964 acres of mangroves and emergent vegetation.by restoring the hydrology of the area, we will not only benefit wildlife species but also, local communities that depend on this wetland area for their fishing activities that provide a livelihood to support their families.