During our visits to different protected areas, we have been monitoring some of the most critical forest zone, critical because of the threats hovering over them. One of the most serious threats is illegal logging.
In many countries around the world, the last native habitats and wildlife are found in one type of land use category: natural protected areas. If these protected areas fail, the natural riches held within will be lost forever.
If humanity values intact nature, biological diversity, and wild areas: Protected Areas Must Work. Unfortunately, many of them are in shambles, especially in developing tropical countries, where most of the world\’s biodiversity is concentrated.
Despite the funds invested in conservation every year, a worrisome situation prevails throughout the tropical world: there is a lack of information regarding the state of conservation and management effectiveness in these protected areas.
The Solution: ParksWatch
By establishing alliances with non-governmental organizations and local experts, ParksWatch conducts evaluations (diagnostics) of protected areas in the tropics. The information collected is used to analyze threats to the protected area, identify strategies to reduce those threats, and support public agencies, conservation NGOS, and community organizations in their efforts to protect biodiversity.
The in-country programs coordinate data collection, both background research and field collection. Our main product is the \”park profile\” where the data obtained by the multidisciplinary group is synthesized. Our results are shared with protected area managers and local stakeholders in diverse public forums, and disseminated internationally via our web page.
In Mexico, in 2002, an alliance was formed between ParksWatch, part of the Duke University\’s Center for Tropical Conservation in the United States, and Naturalia A.C. to create a program that would study and evaluate Mexico\’s natural protected areas. Since then, the program has evaluated 12 protected areas and the results are found in the park profiles posted on at the ParksWatch website: www.parkswatch.org.
Our field work has included the arid zones of Vizcaíno in the peninsula of Baja California Sur, the dry forests of Chamela-Cuixmala on the Pacific Coast, temperate ecosystems, like pine and oyamel forests in the Monarch Butterfly Reserve, and the rainforests of Montes Azules in Chiapas, among others.
Natural protected areas have always been extremely important for civil society, because our natural resources and heritage are protected in them.
Today, we have a decentralized institution working for and protecting these resources, the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP)). Nonetheless, society must actively participate to protect and watch over the protected area\’s biological richness in order to manage and conserve these places for future generations.
During our visits to different reserves, we have been ale to monitor some of the forests\’ most critical zones, the areas with threats hovering above. The most serious threats include illegal logging, which occurs at many different levels from small-scale, individual tree harvesting to very well organized intensive loggers, that in absence of park guards or governmental authorities, work freely. During operations trying to stop this illegal activity, these people simply reduce their activities or suspend them temporarily in order to avoid detection. Without doubt, it is a fight of tenacity and political will that we should not lose.
Another threat facing Mexican forests is conversion of the land into agricultural fields. Constant deforestation over soils poor in nutrients and on rugged terrain with steep slopes will exhaust harvests of crops like corn in a very short period of time.
Slash and burn agriculture is a prevalent method to add nutrients to the soil. However, this type of agriculture can provoke serious forest fires under conditions like hot climate, high temperatures, strong winds and when there is a lack of appropriate management techniques employed. These forest fires generally affect other forested areas.
Another serious threat is growing population within protected areas. The need for public services and the demand for natural resources seriously pressure the ecosystems that usually lack sustainable management. For example, in the case of forestry, the forest owners are not usually the ones who earn the most economic benefit from the activity, rather intermediaries and the saw mills that buy the logs to process them and thereby make a extra benefit on the final product.
Our forests are an invaluable resource because of their high species diversity; consider the example of the Mexican pines. The pine ecosystems harbor more than 50 species of pine, the most in the world.
Forests are much more than just green areas, they provide environmental services. They produce oxygen and retain large quantities of carbon dioxide, which otherwise would escape into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
Another important point is that forests are called \”water factories\” because it is there that where most precipitation falls. This precipitation in turn forms rivers and lakes and replenishes groundwater (because of soil filtration). We humans are dependent on these sources of water. This is why large cities, like Mexico City, have potable water. It is easy for people to think that opening the spigot taps into water stored in tanks, but the process is much more complex.
Forests provide us with many services and benefits. We should also consider the fact that these ecosystems harbor high levels of biodiversity, which characterizes our very country. Because of this, the ParksWatch-Mexico program works to evaluate and monitor the areas protecting this important resource.
ParksWatch in an international not-for-profit organization working in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala and Mexico.
Article published in the magazine, TEOREMA AMBIENTAL. April – May 2005
Written by: Gerardo Carreón, translated by: Amanda Zidek-Vanega
ParksWatch-Mexico: June 2005