The Borderlands Restoration Network, based in Patagonia, Ariz., received a $100,000 award on Wednesday during a symposium from Colorado State University’s Salazar Center for North American Conservation.

“We’re thrilled to be able to award this funding to Borderlands Restoration Network to help them realize their vision for landscape connectivity along the U.S.-Mexico border,” said the center’s founder, Ken Salazar. Salazar is also a former U.S. secretary of the interior and U.S. senator from Colorado. “I hope the example they set inspires others across the continent to think of new and creative approaches to their own unique conservation challenges.”

The center held its second annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact this week, with a focus on urban sustainability. Five organizations pitched project proposals that would improve the health of ecosystems and communities and build resilience.

Borderland Restoration Network intends to create a sustainability certification for bacanora, a distillate of the agave plant mescal. Bats that feed on nectar rely on and pollinate the plants as they migrate between the U.S. and Mexico. However, the plants are becoming scarce because of increased bacanora production.

The network will use the prize money to gather baseline data on the agave plants’ population and support a sustainability certification that would influence the production of bacanora. In addition to the impacts on bats, bacanora harvesting decreases agave’s genetic diversity and makes crops more susceptible to disease.