About Us

Since our beginnings,
Teyeliz has worked together with the Federal Attorney’s Office for the Protection of the Environment (PROFEPA), analyzing the illegal trade of different species, providing training, creating handling and identification materials, promoting awareness campaigns and supporting changes in national and international legislation to facilitate law enforcement work.
Our decades of work have brought many victories; here are just a few:
CITES
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) regulates international wildlife trade. This regulation helps curb illegal international trade, but only for species listed in its Appendices. Our members have authored, co-authored or campaigned in support of many proposals to list wildlife species in Appendix II (allows international trade with a permit) and Appendix I (prohibits international trade with some exceptions). Over the past 25 years, Teyeliz has helped to get more than 590 species of animals and plants, including parrots, reptiles, amphibians, sharks, tropical trees and amphibians, listed in CITES Appendix II and Appendix I. This is an unprecedented record. This is a record held by no other organization in the world.


Parrots and macaws
In 2007 we documented that more than 78,000 parrots were illegally captured for the pet trade each year. Our report became the basis for a reform of the Wildlife Law that banned all parrot trade in Mexico, putting an end to an ancient pre-Columbian custom of keeping parrots as pets. The reform was approved by consensus in the Chamber of Deputies of Congress in March 2007 and passed in the Senate in April 2008. The reform became law in October 2008, prohibiting the capture, trade, export, import and captive breeding of the 22 species of parrots and macaws in Mexico. By 2022 we document that illegal trade in parrots and macaws has decreased by 47%.
In 2022 we documented that the illegal trade of parrots and macaws has decreased by 47%, thanks to the awareness campaign we started in 2009 with PROFEPA and many organizations and institutions, which has reached tens of millions of Mexicans.

Radio Program "Supervivencia" (Survival)
In 2005 we created a weekly radio program called "Supervivencia" on the Mexican Radio Institute (IMER). Each week, the program hosted Mexican experts in ecology and biology, as well as government authorities and environmental NGOs, who spoke about wildlife conservation and campaigns against illegal wildlife trade. The program aired for seven years, until 2011, and was the station's highest-rated program, with more than 400,000 weekly listeners. In 2011 it received the most important environmental award in Mexico in the category of "communication" for Nature Conservation granted by the Natural Protected Areas Commission of the Ministry of the Environment.
Invasive species
During the decade 2000-2010, Mexico became one of the world's largest importers of wildlife. Mexico was the largest importer of CITES-listed birds, the second largest importer of reptiles and the fourth largest importer of mammals, all for the pet trade. In addition, Mexico imported non-CITES species, involving millions of specimens per year. Among them were many highly invasive bird and reptile species, and illegal trade in them was growing. In 2008, we proposed changes to the General Wildlife Law and the General Law of Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection to prohibit the importation of invasive alien species. In November 2008, the reform was approved by the Senate and subsequently by the Chamber of Deputies in February 2010, finally becoming law in April 2010. After many years of debate, a comprehensive list of exotic invasive species was published in 2016, containing more than 80 wild vertebrate species and many more plant species, one of the most extensive lists in the world. Since then, imports of millions of specimens of invasive alien species have been halted.

Birdwatching

Photos: Istock, Flickr, Teyeliz, Grosselet