By Sergio Avila, M.S., Sky Island Alliance Biologist, and Héctor Avila, M.S., Herpetologist
What do you think of when you hear the word “Mexico”? Maybe a wide diversity of excellent food, music, friendly people, amazing landscapes, soccer, sombreros or tequila ? All this is true, but in environmental terms, Mexico is much more than beaches and forests: it has an important place as one of the countries with the highest biological diversity in the world. Mexico is a “megadiverse” country because it harbors a great variety of ecosystems inhabited by many species. This country hosts 10% of the plant species in the world, 40% of which are endemic; 803 species of reptiles and 361 amphibians, 64% endemic; and 450 species of mammals, 29% endemic. This biological richness is present thanks to a combination of geographic, geologic, and topographic factors (Mexico is situated at the confluence of the Nearctic and Neotropical bio-geographic regions), and to its surface area of nearly 2 million km 2 and its 12,000 km of coastline.
Mexico's great biodiversity gives rise to a broad cultural diversity, including more than 50 indigenous groups, along with their characteristic languages, food, dress, life ways and interpretation of nature. Mexico owes its vast cultural and ethnic richness to its natural heritage, through which Mesoamerican cultures flourished before the arrival of the Spaniards.
But Mexico differs from the United States in how conservation and management of natural resources are accomplished. These differences result mainly from rapid population growth, a low level of education across society, less technological development, internal politics, and the growing urgency of satisfying basic needs (food, housing, health and education systems, etc.). All of these challenges cause an inappropriate and disorganized use of natural resources that affects the economy as well. For this reason, while other countries have met their basic needs (whether with their own resources or with those bought from other countries), in Mexico these demands obstruct efforts to conserve biological richness. These conflicts and benefits related to the use of natural resources are not exclusive to Mexico but are present in other megadiverse countries: Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea and India.
A large percentage of the Mexican population lacks housing, work, and basic services; as a result, its people use natural resources to survive. They log forests to build their homes; they cut trees as fuel wood for cooking, lighting, and heating; and they use land to cultivate crops. Others hunt wildlife for food, putting many species at risk of disappearance. Finally, others participate in the illegal commercial harvest of diverse plant and animal species, driven by the strong demand coming from richer countries, and severely compromising this priceless national heritage.
To understand better the differences between the practices of managing natural resources in Mexico and in the United States, we need to compare resource use as it relates to the economies of both countries. In the United States, growth of the system of protected natural areas has been extraordinary in the last 100 years, and only a small proportion of natural resources is used to meet the most fundamental needs of a population that is twice the size of Mexico's.
In Mexico the opposite is true: forest cover decreases significantly every year, and the population depends on natural areas to obtain basic resources for subsistence, extracting quantities that cannot be sustained over the long term. The use of natural resources for recreation is rarely considered: terms like “ wilderness ”, “ hiking ” and “ backpacking ” so common in English, are not readily translated into Spanish.
At the moment Mexico is advancing on the conservation front with institutions like the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad [CONABIO]), which promotes action for the sustainable use of natural resources and provides financial support for the implementation of scientific research projects. The federal government, through the Secretariat for Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales [SEMARNAT]), has fostered the sustainable use of natural resources by implementing a system of Units for Management and Use of Natural Resources (Unidades de Manejo y Aprovechamiento de los Recursos Naturales [UMAs]), which allows individuals or groups to sell, exhibit or harvest the flora and fauna present on their property, under a program of sustainable management. The National Commission for Protected Natural Areas (Comisión Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas [CONANP]) administers the 150 federal natural areas that cover more than 17.8 million hectares throughout the country. These sites are classified into six categories: Biosphere Reserves (Reservas de la Biosfera), National Parks (Parques Nacionales), Natural Monuments (Monumentos Naturales), Areas for the Protection of Natural Resources (Áreas de Protección de Recursos Naturales), Areas for the Protection of Flora and Fauna (Áreas de Protección de Flora y Fauna) and Sanctuaries (Santuarios). The Federal Attorney's Office of Environmental Protection (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente [PROFEPA]) is the federal agency for the application of environmental laws, such as the General Law for Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection ( Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y Protección al Ambiente ) and NOM-059-ECOL-2001 . Nongovernmental organizations like Naturalia, CEDO, Pronatura, Hojanay and Pro-Península, as well as universities and education centers, carry out research, conservation efforts, education and outreach on the understanding of natural resources. The Sierra Madre Alliance in Chihuahua, and Culturas Nativas in Baja California, are groups that link the preservation of indigenous cultures with the protection of the biodiversity in which they live. All these organizations are simply a few examples of the progress in Mexico's efforts to protect its natural resources. But much remains to be done on behalf of the conservation of its natural riches, as well as for the economic and social development of its inhabitants.
Conservation efforts in Mexico present a great challenge, because they must be tied to promoting opportunities for education and economic and social development in rural areas, especially. The use of natural resources in Mexico is a socioeconomic necessity both historic and current. Our knowledge about the management of natural resources must be brought up to date with sociological studies, an understanding of local and regional needs, and respect for traditional resource use in rural communities.
*The authors thank Jennifer Shopland for her help in the translation of this article.