Mapimí, UNESCO biosphere reserve in Durango, Mexico

Mapimí Biosphere Reserve covers 342,388 hectares of the Bolsón de Mapimí in the Chihuahuan Desert, at 1,150 metres above sea level, across Durango, Chihuahua and Coahuila. Its three core areas are the Sierra de la Campana, the salt lagoon Laguna de las Palomas and the Dunas de la Soledad. Xerophytic scrub and chaparral dominate, with halophyte vegetation in the lower parts.

Mapimí was designated a biosphere reserve in 1977, the same year the Mexican government set it aside to protect the central Chihuahuan Desert. In 1979 it entered UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme, together with La Michilía and Montes Azules, as one of the first reserves in Mexico and Latin America to join the network. Its three core areas are the Sierra de la Campana, the salt lagoon Laguna de las Palomas and the Dunas de la Soledad.

Local communities living here practice cattle raising and salt extraction as part of their daily work. They combine these traditional activities with participation in environmental protection efforts.

Visitors can join guided tours along marked trails to observe wildlife throughout the reserve. The best time to visit depends on weather and wildlife patterns, so planning ahead is recommended.

The reserve is home to the Bolson tortoise, a species found nowhere else in the world except this region of the Chihuahuan Desert. These tortoises have adapted to thrive in extreme desert heat and aridity.