El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve expands for over 1,000 squared kilometers in the Southern Sierra Madre of Chiapas and is one of the biggest and better preserved extensions of cloud forest in Mesoamerica, an ecosystem highly threatened at a global scale, as its original extension has been reduced in a 60% in the last decades. The breathtaking mountains of El Triunfo, are reported to have one of the greatest diversity of tree species of North and Central American forests and to be one of the largest extension of forests remaining in Mexico. This humid, cold and silent ecosystem is the domain of organisms whose origins date back to a remote geological past. In fact, El Triunfo is one of the last paleorefuges in Mexico and provides shelter to numerous endemic species that had evolved separately from other members of their families. Centennial oaks and liquidambars covered in bromeliads and mosses are surrounded by scattered patches of ancient tree ferns which give these mountains a prehistoric mood and are home for an amazing biodiversity which includes 24% of the animal species registered in Mexico. A key region for migratory birds and a priority international conservation site, El Triunfo is the domain of the elusive horned guan –an endemic, turkey-like bird of the highlands of Mesoamerican hotspot and only survivor of a very ancient lineage that dates back to possibly as much as 40 million years. It is also home for one of the last remaining populations of resplendent quetzals in Mexico.


In the first two weeks of April 2007 a group of five well-known conservation photographers and a crew of cameramen, writers and technical assistants performed a photographic expedition –the first iLCP’s RAVE, or Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition– to El Triunfo. The objective was to raise the awareness of society on this endangered ecosystem and to support with their images and commitment the activities of the El Triunfo Conservation Fund, a local NGO that works to preserve the last remnants of these forests in Mexico.