The Maya Forest is a tropical moist broadleaf forest that covers much of the Yucatan Peninsula, thereby encompassing Belize, northern Guatemala, and southeastern Mexico. It is deemed the second largest tropical rainforest in the Americas, after the Amazon, with an area of circa 15 million hectares (150,000 km2), of which at least 3 million (30,000 km2) lie within protected areas.
The Maya Forest is considered 'the [second] largest remaining tropical rainforest in the Americas,' after the Amazon.[1][2] It is widely deemed to cover much of the Yucatan Peninsula, thereby encompassing Belize, northern Guatemala, and southeastern Mexico, and stretching across protected and unprotected areas, and Crown (ie public) and private lands.[1][3][4] This coincides with the original definition of the Forest as developed in 1995 for internationally-coordinated conservation efforts, namely, the contiguous tropical rainforest which housed the Classic Maya civilisation within the Maya Lowlands.[5] Some literature, however, restricts the Forest's bounds to only contiguous rainforest within protected areas (eg the Maya Biosphere Reserve and abutting protected areas).[6] Other literature, though, extends the Forest's bounds beyond the Peninsula, suggesting it stretches along the Gulf of Mexico littoral beyond the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the west, and along the Bay of Honduras littoral along northern Honduras to the east.[6][7]
History
The Maya Forest / protected areas outlined / 2020 map by P. Popoca-Cruz / via Laako et al 2022
Pre-Columbian
The Maya Forest is thought to have come into being after the Last Glacial Maximum circa 20,000 years ago.[8] Prior to such event, an arid climate is thought to have predominated in the Maya Lowlands, leading to dry, open savannahs, rather than a tropical rainforest.[8][note 2]
The earliest Palaeoindian settlers of the former Maya Lowlands would have encountered a burgeoning Maya Forest, and employed it to hunt and gather food, thereby leaving it largely intact. Their successors, the Maya, were once thought to have similarly kept the Forest in a largely virginal state, but scholarly consensus has flipped on this point. It is now thought that Preclassic or Classic Maya residents deforested large tracts of the Forest for residential and agricultural use, with recovery possible only after the Classic Maya Collapse.[9][10]
Columbian
The Maya's successors, the Spanish in Guatemala and Mexico, and the Baymen in Belize, took to logging the Forest since their arrival during the conquest of Yucatan and later settlement of Belize and conquest of Peten.[11] Though centuries of timber extraction may not have decimated the Forest, they did alter it, for instance, via selective extraction of logwood and mahogany.[12]
Modern conservation efforts were begun in 1817 with the passage of the Crown Lands Ordinance, which regulated logging in the southeastern portion of the Forest, within British Honduran Crown lands. The earliest protected areas within the Forest are believed to have been the Silk Grass or Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserves, gazetted in 1920, both in the southeastern portion of the Forest, within British Honduras. Conservation efforts were not coordinated across state lines, however, until 1995, when a workshop to such end was held at the Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Campeche, Mexico, by the US Man and Biosphere Programme.[13][note 3]
Presently, forest fires, illegal logging, illicit trafficking of flora and fauna, and intensive agriculture are thought to pose 'great threats' to the Forest.[14][15][16] A recent study, for instance, found that twenty-first century deforestation has fragmented the Forest, thereby undermining its contiguity.[17] It has been noted, furthermore, that mitigating said threats has proven challenging, given frosty diplomatic relations between Forest-holding states, most especially Belize and Guatemala.[14][18]
Geography
Physical
The Forest is a contiguous maze of woods with pockets of savannahs, wetlands, and coastal mangrove stands.[19][20]
Human
As of the 2010s, the Forest houses a population of approximately 588,000 to 600,000 people in non-protected areas, including Maya, Garifuna, mestizo, and Mennonite residents.[21][22] The Forest comprises various protected and unprotected tracts of woods, and itself constitutes the northernmost part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.[23]
The Maya Forest comprises more than 20 ecosystems.
It is home to a wide range of animals, including jaguars, monkeys, parrots, tapirs, snakes and crocodiles. [3]
Legacy
The Forest has been deemed 'one of the most important ecological systems globally[, it being] considered the most extensive tropical forest in Mesoamerica[, with] a surface of protected areas that exceeds four million hectares [40,000 sq km].'[3][4]
↑ Infobox notes. Note a Most commonly accepted extent per 'Extent' section of this article. Note b Centroid of most commonly accepted extent. Note c Area of protected and unprotected forest per GC 2021, quote after para. 3. Total area values range from 14,164,000ha (141,640km2) (TNC 2020, para. 1) to 15,400,000ha (154,000km2) (GC 2021, quote after para. 6). Protected area values range from 3,100,800ha (31,008km2) (WCF 2019, para. 1) to 'exceeds four million hectares [40,000 sq km]' (WWF 2022, para. 1, SM 2017a, para. 1). Note d Classification per WWF xx. Note e Species per WCF 2019, para. 6, SM 2017a, para. 5, Bridgewater 2012, p.41, and Hutson & Ardren 2020, p.522. Note f Species per WWF 2022, para. 3, WCF 2019, paras. 2, 6, TNC 2020, para. 1, SM 2017a, para. 5, GC 2021, para. 3, and Bridgewater 2012, p.3. Note g Name per Hutson & Ardren 2020, p.525.
↑ The closest tropical rainforest during the Last Glacial Maximum may have been in southern Central America (Bridgewater 2012, p.55). During glacial minima, rainforests would have expanded, while savannahs would have contracted (Bridgewater 2012, pp.55, 66).
↑ Though international coordination was first suggested in the 1970s by the National Geographic via its coverage of an international 'Maya Route' (Laako et al. 2022, p.1297). As of 2022, international conservation efforts include the GIZ-funded Selva Maya Programme (since 2000), the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor initiative (since 1990s), the Jaguar Corridor initiative, and the Belize-lead Maya Forest Corridor initiative (since 2019) (Laako et al. 2022, pp.1302–1304).
↑ Areas consisting of distinct protected sub-areas, or of protected and unprotected sub-areas, marked with an asterisk (*) in the Name column. Missing values marked with an en-dash (–).
↑ Size given as 115,000ha (1,150km2) in GC 2021, paras. 1-2. Establishment date given as 1980s in SM 2017b, sec. 'Belize' para. 6.
↑ Area comprising protected and unprotected sub-areas, including the Columbia River Forest Reserve (SM 2017b, sec. 'Belize' paras. 3-4).
↑ Area comprising protected and unprotected sub-areas, including the national parks of Mirador–Río Azul, Yaxha–Nakum–Naranjo, Tikal, Sierra del Lacandón, and Laguna del Tigre (SM 2017b, sec. 'Guatemala' paras. 1-19).
↑ Area comprising protected and unprotected sub-areas, including the Chiquibul–Maya Mountains Biosphere Reserve, Machaquilá–Xutilhá Wildlife Refuge, and San Román Biological Reserve (SM 2017b, sec. 'Guatemala' paras. 20-31).
Bridgewater, Samuel (2012). A Natural History of Belize. Corrie Herring Hooks Series no. 52. Austin, TX; London: University of Texas Press; Natural History Museum. doi:10.7560/726710. ISBN9780292726710.
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Central America is usually defined as consisting of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Within Central America is the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active geologic faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc, there is a high amount of seismic activity in the region, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, which has resulted in death, injury, and property damage.
The Maya Mountains are a mountain range located in Belize and eastern Guatemala, in Central America.
The Lacandon Jungle is an area of rainforest which stretches from Chiapas, Mexico, into Guatemala. The heart of this rainforest is located in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas near the border with Guatemala in the Montañas del Oriente region of the state. Although much of the jungle outside the reserve has been cleared, the Lacandon is still one of the largest montane rainforests in Mexico. It contains 1,500 tree species, 33% of all Mexican bird species, 25% of all Mexican animal species, 56% of all Mexican diurnal butterflies and 16% of all Mexico's fish species.
El Pilar is an ancient Maya city center located on the Belize-Guatemala border. The site is located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north of San Ignacio, Belize and can be accessed through the San Ignacio and Bullet Tree Falls on the Belize River. The name "El Pilar" is Spanish for "watering basin", reflecting the abundance of streams around the site and below its escarpment, which is rare in the Maya area.
The flora of Belize is highly diverse by regional standards, given the country's small geographical extent. Situated on the Caribbean coast of northern Central America the flora and vegetation have been intimately intertwined with Belize's history. The nation itself grew out of British timber extraction activities from the 17th century onwards, at first for logwood and later for mahogany, fondly called "red gold" because of its high cost and was much sought after by European aristocracy. Central America generally is thought to have gained much of it characteristic flora during the "Great American interchange" during which time South American elements migrated north after the geological closure of the isthmus of Panama. Few Amazonian elements penetrate as far north as Belize and in species composition the forests of Belize are most similar to the forests of the Petén (Guatemala) and the Yucatán (Mexico).
The Programme for Belize is a private initiative, the first project undertaken in 1988. Financial and management assistance was generously given by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. After the project was identified and started, loans were provided by the Nature Conservancy and donations provided by the World Land Trust. The goal of the project was to purchase and protect tropical rainforests in Belize to prevent them from being sold and cleared to make way for ranching. The project was launched at the London Butterfly House in May 1989. The famous naturalists Gerald Durrell and his wife Lee Durrell were guests of honour, and also visited Belize in 1989 to help with in-situ conservation efforts there. By 1996, more than 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) of land had been purchased and was under the ownership and protection of PfB. The World Land Trust then initiated Friends of Belize to help raise funds to cover costs of continuing protection of the purchased lands, as well as to aid in-situ conservation efforts. Since 2006 World Land Trust has organised regular symposia for the decision-makers of their project partners, and in 2008 PfB hosted the event at their La Milpa ecolodge.
The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is a nature reserve in the Stann Creek District of south-central Belize. It was established to protect the forests, fauna and watersheds of an approximately 400 square kilometres (150 sq mi) area of the eastern slopes of the Maya Mountains.
The Petén–Veracruz moist forests is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest biome found in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Since declaring independence in 1981, Belize has enacted many environmental protection laws aimed at the preservation of the country's natural and cultural heritage, as well as its wealth of natural resources. These acts have established a number of different types of protected areas, with each category having its own set of regulations dictating public access, resource extraction, land use and ownership.
Xate are the leaves from three Chamaedorea species of palm tree.
The Selva Zoque, which includes the Chimalapas rain forest, is an area of great ecological importance in Mexico. Most of the forest lies in the state of Oaxaca but parts are in Chiapas and Veracruz. It is the largest tract of tropical rainforest in Mexico, and contains the majority of terrestrial biodiversity in the country. The forest includes the Selva El Ocote, a federally-protected biosphere reserve, but is otherwise not yet protected. Despite the rich ecology of the region, a 2003 study that focused on bird populations stated that "the fauna of the heart of the Chimalapas, including its vast rainforests, have seen little or no study". As it is an impoverished region, efforts to preserve the ecology are often at odds with demands to improve the economy.
Bladen Nature Reserve in Belize is a landscape of caves, sinkholes, streams and rivers, old growth rainforest and an abundance of highly diverse flora and fauna which includes a great deal of rare and endemic species.
The Belizean Coast mangroves ecoregion covers the brackish and salt-water habitats along the Caribbean Sea coast of Belize, and of Amatique Bay in Guatemala; small parts in the border with Mexico are also present on this ecoregion. The mangroves are partially protected from the open sea by the Belize Barrier Reef, and this ecoregion is distinct from the reef-based Belizean Reef mangroves ecoregion offshore. There is a large population of the vulnerable West Indian manatee in the area. It covers an area of around 2850 km2.
The Belizean pine forests is an ecoregion that represents an example of lowland and premontane pine forests in the Neotropical realm, where the dominant tree species is Caribbean pine. The vegetation here is generally adapted to the xeric, acidic and nutrient-poor conditions along the Belizean near coastal zone of the Caribbean versant.
The forests of Mexico cover a surface area of about 64 million hectares, or 34.5% of the country. These forests are categorized by the type of tree and biome: tropical forests, temperate forests, cloud forests, riparian forests, deciduous, evergreen, dry, moist, etc.. The agency in charge of Mexico's forests is the National Forestry Commission. Despite major reforms to the Constitution in 1992 regarding private land, Mexico enacted major forest regulation laws in 1998 and 2003. Though no longer required to enforce land regulation in Mexico, Article 27 of the Constitution also still permits the Government to enact land regulation.
The Chiquibul Forest Reserve (CFR) lies within Belize's Greater Mayan Mountains. The Forest Reserve lies adjacent to the Belize-Guatemalan border and as such had been the focus of illegal harvesting of Xate by Guatemalan Xateros. The Chiquibul forest reserve consists of 59,822 hectares. The Chiquibul Forest Reserve is bordered to the southwest, east, and south by the hiquibul National Park, on the northwest edge by the w:Caracol Archaeological ReserveCaracol Archaeological Reserve (CAR), and on the north side by the Mountain Pine Ridge. The Chiquibul Forest Reserve along with the Chiquibul Park and the Caracol Archeological Reserve compose the Chiquibul Forest.
Dalbergia stevensonii, also called Honduras rosewood, is a Central American tree species in the legume family. It grows in broadleaf evergreen swamp forests in southern Belize and adjacent Guatemala and Mexico. The wood is highly valuable, which has led to population loss from illegal logging.
The Central American Atlantic moist forests ecoregion covers the lowland coastal forests of Honduras, southeast Guatemala, and the eastern forests of Nicaragua. Half of the ecoregion is closed-canopy tropical broadleaf evergreen forest, with tree heights reaching 50 meters. This ecoregion has the largest single fragment of natural forest in Central America, with a size of 14,629 square kilometres (5,648 sq mi). The total area is 89,979 square kilometres (34,741 sq mi).
The Maya Lowlands are the largest cultural and geographic, first order subdivision of the Maya Region, located in eastern Mesoamerica.
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