Caborrojeños Pro Salud y Ambiente, Inc. (CPSA, Caborrojeños for

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

and

Environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...

) is a non-profit

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

organization based in Cabo Rojo,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. The organization was founded in 1990 by a group of concerned residents who wanted to improve the livings standards of Cabo Rojo and

in general, and was incorporated as a non-profit in 1991. The organization's first president and main driving force was

Efrén Pérez Rivera Efrén Pérez Rivera (March 10, 1929 – May 15, 2011) was a Puerto Rican environmentalist leader and college professor. He got married at the age of 28 with Pezinka Berenguer, till the day he died. He had three children with her, Efrén Pér ...

, an

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

and retired professor of the

University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) in Spanish (also referred to as Colegio and CAAM in allusion to its former name), is a public land-grant university in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. UPRM ...

. The organization partnered with the

US Fish & Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

to preserve and manage the Cabo Rojo Salt Flats. CPSA promotes efforts to preserve the indigenous flora and fauna of the Cabo Rojo area. The organization created and manages the Centro Interpretativo, a visitors' center in the Salinas area, near the Los Morrillos Lighthouse. Volunteers at the Centro Interpretativo provide guided walking tours that allow visitors to experience the local wildlife and fauna. CPSA collaborated with

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

on the Sowing the Development of the Country (SDE) Project before withdrawing in 2008. The group was also actively involved in the preservation of Isla de Ratones (Mice Island), a small island off the coast of Cabo Rojo. The island has been suffering from significant erosion during the past decades. Caborrojeños Pro Salud y Ambiente, with the help of the local government, planted

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

and launched a project to repopulate the local

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

population in order to stop the erosion. The group was part of the alliance of environmental groups that fought the installation the

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

Cogentrix. Caborrojeños Pro Salud y Ambiente was actively involved in the reconstruction effort of the Los Morrillos Lighthouse, achieving a grant from the

U.S. Federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 ...

to restore the historic building. However, political moves and the inactivity of Cabo Rojo mayor Santos Padilla doomed the plan and the federal grant was lost. In 1999, the group received the Urban Community Award, presented by the Puerto Rico Forestry Conference Annual Convention. In 2003, the organization was awarded the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

Environmental Quality Award The group was also recognized by the Miranda Foundation. The current president is retired college professor Dr.

Pedro Valle Carlo Dr. Pedro Valle Carlo (born 1944 in San Juan, Puerto Rico), is a retired college professor and noted environmentalist leader based in western Puerto Rico. Pedro Valle Carlo was born in Santurce. His mother was Blanca Carlo and his father Pedro Va ...

External links

Official Web PortalPrimera Hora Newspaper article describing the organization's work

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caborrojenos Pro Salud y Ambiente Environmental organizations based in Puerto Rico Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico Forestry in Puerto Rico 1990 establishments in Puerto Rico Organizations established in 1990