Secretary Salazar Meets with Mexican Leaders

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today met with the Mexican Secretary for Environment and Natural Resources Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada and the Mexican Ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhán to hear more about Mexico's priorities for bilateral environmental cooperation with the Department of the Interior.

The meeting explored various opportunities to build upon the relationship between the Department of the Interior and the Mexican Secretariat for Environment and Natural Resources. The Secretariat encompasses multiple functions that are spread across the U.S. Government, including those under Interior, EPA and the Forest Service.

The Department of the Interior has engaged in bilateral conservation with Mexico for more than 70 years. Interior manages approximately one-third of the land along the 2000 mile Mexican border, and employees work with Mexican counterparts on a daily basis on shared conservation and natural resource issues such as management of contiguous natural protected areas, protection of migratory and transboundary species, and wildland fire fighting.