Mesoamerican Biological Corridor

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The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) is a region that consists of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and some southern states of Mexico. The area acts as a natural land bridge from South America to North America, which is important for species who use the bridge in migration. Due to the extensive unique habitat types, Mesoamerica contains somewhere between 7 and 10% of the world’s known species. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

The corridor was originally proposed in the 1990s to facilitate animal movements along the Americas without interfering with human development and land use, while promoting ecological sustainability. [2] The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is made of four parts: Core Zones, Buffer Zones, Corridor Zones, and Multiple-Use Zones, [2] each with varying availability for human use.

Background

With the increasing conversion of natural tropical ecosystems to agricultural farms and for other human use, comes growing concern over conservation of local species. [4] Mesoamerica is considered one of many biodiversity hotspots where extinction is a significant threat. [5] This area is the world’s third largest biodiversity hotspot. [1] Some efforts have been made to protect organisms in the region, however, many of these protected sites are “small, fragmented, isolated, or poorly protected”. [4]

In the late 1980s, Archie Carr III envisioned a way to protect threatened and endangered wildlife native to the region by connecting fragmented patches of habitat, and to create buffer zones to allow different levels of land use near protected areas. [6] The corridor that eventually came to be was originally called Paseo Pantera (Spanish for Path of the Panther) and followed the Atlantic coastline. [7]

A topographical map of the region encompassing the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, along the Atlantic coast, and Central American mountain ranges, along the Pacific coast. CAmerica.gif
A topographical map of the region encompassing the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, along the Atlantic coast, and Central American mountain ranges, along the Pacific coast.

The MBC began in the late 1990s, by funding from the World Bank in order to promote wildlife conservation, particularly endemic, threatened, and endangered species, and ways to use the land in a sustainable fashion. [1] It was developed by a team of biologists from the University of Florida and the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD), and was remapped by CCAD, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for political reason. [6] $4 million was invested in the corridor by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1990 to 1995. [6] In 1992, all of the countries that are part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor joined the Central American System of Protected Areas (SICAP), which allows each country to “maintain its own ministries of the environment.” [8] The corridor project has been successful in providing wildlife habitat; however, regional biota remained threatened due to fragmented areas and “unevenness of the region’s protected area system”. [6] The MBC was endorsed in Panama at the 19th Summit of the Central American Heads of State in 1997. [7]

Ecosystems

The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor incorporates multiple diverse biomes and is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Splitting the corridor in half is the Guatemalan Mountain range, which includes active volcanoes. These environmental forces create four terrestrial biomes and 19 terrestrial ecoregions. The biomes include, tropical dry broadleaf forest, tropical wet broadleaf forests, xeric shrub lands, and tropical coniferous forests. [8]

Land use

According to data from 2003, roughly 57% of the Mesoamerican biological corridor is natural vegetation, with the remaining land being used mostly for cattle and crop production. The main crops produced in the MBC include sugar cane, corn, coffee, and beans. With agricultural production being such a large part of all the nations economies, there is much emphasis on adopting sustainable agricultural practices. [8]

The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is made of four parts: Core Zones, Buffer Zones, Corridor Zones, and Multiple-Use Zones, each with varying availability for human use. Core Zones are protected areas whose purpose is to promote and sustain biodiversity in the areas in order to maintain ecosystem services to the local people. Buffer Zones include the areas surrounding the protected Core Zones, which are made up mostly of wild land. Pathways between zones are labeled as Corridor (or Connectivity) Zones; these zones link water and land passages, allowing movement of plants and animals throughout the corridor. Finally Multi-use Zones, separate wild and protected land from land used for forestry, agriculture, and areas of direct human impacts. [9] “Around 10.7% of Mesoamerica is currently under some category of protection for biodiversity conservation.” [8]

Conservation efforts

The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is a program that “integrates protection areas into a single, functional conservation area”. [8] Their goal is to promote “regional scale connectivity of protected areas with sustainable development and improvement of human livelihoods.” [8] The purpose of the corridor is to emphasize the conservation movement as being a social and group effort. One issue with conservation efforts arise from the discontinuity of government and politics across the corridor; areas are often fragmented and up to 40% of protected areas go unenforced because it crosses nations barriers. [8] The rapid increase in human population growth negatively affects conservation. Although this growth has been paired with rapid urbanization, the majority of the MBC population still resides in rural areas and “depends directly on biological resources for subsistence.” [9] This dependency has led to exploitation that is difficult to quantify and regulate by the nations’ governments and conservation groups.

As of 2010, SICAP (Central American System of Protected Areas) encompasses 669 protected areas that total 124,250 square kilometers. [8] Yet, conservation efforts are hindered and negatively impacted by the fragmentation of land parcels and cross-national political differences and tension. Most of the protected areas are roughly 18,400 hectares, while only 18 areas exceeded 1,000 square kilometers. [9] Presently, most conservation efforts are in promoting sustainable development and mitigating the damage done to the area by deforestation. Deforestation in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor peaked between the 1970s and the 1990s. Planting native trees is the main method of restoring ecosystems after deforestation.

Controversy

When the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor was in the planning process there was a lack of formal functions proposed. [6] The stakeholders did not have a clear idea of what the exact functions of the MBC were, which led to anger and an increase in the time taken to implement the corridor. The MBC was originally conceived as a way to protect threatened and endangered wildlife by connecting fragments of habitats and forming buffer zones to limit human land use. [6] However, many of the interested stakeholders wanted to include common livelihood problems such as pollution, water and sanitation, pesticides contamination, firewood acquisition, zoonotic and infectious disease. [1] It was finally decided that the main goals of the corridor would be to facilitate animal movements along the Americas without interfering with human development and land use, while promoting ecological sustainability. [2] Indigenous people were barely involved in these decisions and the zone boundaries were made without their input. This lack of input led to distrust and tension between the locals and corridor implementers. [10]

In an effort to promote ecological sustainability, payment for various environmental services are given to landowners in order to motivate reforestation on their land. A major issue with these programs is that most small landholders do not have titles to the land. These small landholders were given plots to cultivate when they worked on larger farms or many were displaced migrants who settled in unclaimed lands. Since they have no legal documentation of land ownership they cannot apply for many of the correct land use incentives, thus little consideration of long-term effects on the land is given. [9] Another issue is that the programs do not differentiate between small-scale and large-scale landowners. In an effort to reduce Carbon emissions the MBC offers incentives for carbon sinks. Large-scale landowners have taken advantage of these systems by planting African Oil Palms on their lands. These plants provide them with more carbon credits whereas a small landowner who is maintaining forest will receive little to no carbon credits. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forest</span> Dense collection of trees covering a relatively large area

A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 found that forests covered 4.06 billion hectares, or approximately 31 percent of the world's land area in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protected area</span> Areas protected for having ecological or cultural importance

Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources is limited.

This is an index of conservation topics. It is an alphabetical index of articles relating to conservation biology and conservation of the natural environment.

In situ conservation is the on-site conservation or the conservation of genetic resources in natural populations of plant or animal species, such as forest genetic resources in natural populations of tree species. This process protects the inhabitants and ensures the sustainability of the environment and ecosystem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habitat conservation</span> Management practice for protecting types of environments

Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in terms of any one ideology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic Forest</span> South American forest

The Atlantic Forest is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina, where the region is known as Selva Misionera.

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in The Environmentalist in 1988 and 1990, after which the concept was revised following thorough analysis by Myers and others into "Hotspots: Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions" and a paper published in the journal Nature, both in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Gate Biosphere Network</span>

The Golden Gate Biosphere Network is a voluntary coalition of federal, state, and local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, universities, and private partners within the Golden Gate Biosphere region. The Network aims to protect the region's biodiversity and conserve its natural resources, enhancing quality of life for local residents. The Network has been part of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme since 1988 and is part of the US Biosphere Network and EuroMAB. It is recognized by UNESCO due to the significant biodiversity of the region, as well as the Network's efforts to demonstrate and promote a balanced relationship between humans and the biosphere.

The Lower Guinean forests also known as the Lower Guinean-Congolian forests, are a region of coastal tropical moist broadleaf forest in West Africa, extending along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Guinea from eastern Benin through Nigeria and Cameroon.

Reserve design is the process of planning and creating a nature reserve in a way that effectively accomplishes the goal of the reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation in Belize</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildlife corridor</span> Connecting wild territories for animals

A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures. This allows an exchange of individuals between populations, which may help prevent the negative effects of inbreeding and reduced genetic diversity that often occur within isolated populations. Corridors may also help facilitate the re-establishment of populations that have been reduced or eliminated due to random events. This may moderate some of the worst effects of habitat fragmentation, whereas urbanization can split up habitat areas, causing animals to lose both their natural habitat and the ability to move between regions to access resources. Habitat fragmentation due to human development is an ever-increasing threat to biodiversity, and habitat corridors serve to manage its effects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riparian buffer</span> Vegetated area near a stream, usually forested

A riparian buffer or stream buffer is a vegetated area near a stream, usually forested, which helps shade and partially protect the stream from the impact of adjacent land uses. It plays a key role in increasing water quality in associated streams, rivers, and lakes, thus providing environmental benefits. With the decline of many aquatic ecosystems due to agriculture, riparian buffers have become a very common conservation practice aimed at increasing water quality and reducing pollution.

Tropical ecology is the study of the relationships between the biotic and abiotic components of the tropics, or the area of the Earth that lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The tropical climate experiences hot, humid weather and rainfall year-round. While many might associate the region solely with the rainforests, the tropics are home to a wide variety of ecosystems that boast a great wealth of biodiversity, from exotic animal species to seldom-found flora. Tropical ecology began with the work of early English naturalists and eventually saw the establishment of research stations throughout the tropics devoted to exploring and documenting these exotic landscapes. The burgeoning ecological study of the tropics has led to increased conservation education and programs devoted to the climate. Tropical ecology provides a wealth of natural resources to humans, this includes contributing to the carbon cycle, with the ability to store 50% of carbon emissions as well as turnover 40% of global oxygen. However, despite the natural services provided by tropical ecology, deforestation is a threat of tropical rainforests. Any plant of interest can be exploited for commercial reasons and extraction of these specific plant species can be at a rapid rate without time for healthy regeneration. Most of the global plant biodiversity is hosted in tropical areas, however studies in this area is mostly covered by scientist from Northern countries. Inclusion of scientist from countries where rainforest is present is heavily encouraged because it extends global knowledge and research which advances scientific contributions, benefiting tropical ecology.

An intact forest landscape (IFL) is an unbroken natural landscape of a forest ecosystem and its habitat–plant community components, in an extant forest zone. An IFL is a natural environment with no signs of significant human activity or habitat fragmentation, and of sufficient size to contain, support, and maintain the complex of indigenous biodiversity of viable populations of a wide range of genera and species, and their ecological effects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deforestation in Sri Lanka</span>

Deforestation is one of the most serious environmental issues in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's current forest cover as of 2017 was 29.7%. In the 1920s, the island had a 49 percent forest cover but by 2005 this had fallen by approximately 26 percent. Between 1990 and 2000, Sri Lanka lost an average of 26,800 ha of forests per year. This amounts to an average annual deforestation rate of 1.14%. Between 2000 and 2005 the rate accelerated to 1.43% per annum. However, with a long history of policy and laws towards environmental protection, deforestation rates of primary cover have decreased 35% since the end of the 1990s thanks to a strong history of conservation measures. The problem of deforestation in Sri Lanka is not as significant in the southern mountainous regions as it is in northern and lowland southern Sri Lanka, largely due to the nature of environmental protection.

The Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region is a biosphere reserve situated in the north eastern region of South Africa, straddling Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces. In 2001, under the supervision of the then Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region was officially ratified by UNESCO as part of the Man and the Biosphere (MaB) Programme. UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme provides a framework for exploring local solutions to challenges by mainstreaming biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, integrating economic, social and environmental aspects and recognising their vital linkages within specific learning landscapes adjacent to Protected Areas.

Biolink zones are a land use category developed for biodiversity conservation and landscape adaptation under changing climates. Biolink zone was first coined in 1992 to encapsulate a potential new land-use resulting from research on vertebrate fauna of se Australia and their prospective responses to climate change. Biolink zones are identified parts of the landscape where the functional ecological connectivity for biodiversity is enhanced and / or restored to provide space for species to self adapt their distributions and abundances under changing climates through natural processes including: dispersal; re-colonisation; regeneration and restoration of ecological function.

The Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve is situated in Illubabor Zone of the Oromia Regional State, southwestern Ethiopia.

The Caatinga Ecological Corridor is an ecological corridor in the caatinga biome of northeast Brazil.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Grandia, Liza (26 Jun 2009). "Between Bolivar and Bureaucracy: The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor". Conservation & Society. 5 (4): 478–503. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ray, Deepak (26 September 2005). "Dry season clouds and rainfall in northern Central America: Implications for the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor". Global and Planetary Change. 54 (1–2): 150–162. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2005.09.004.
  3. ↑ "Mesoamerican Biological Corridor: Mexico to Panama" (PDF). Global Transboundary Conservation Network. Global Transboundary Conservation Network. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  4. 1 2 Harvey, Celia (1 Feb 2008). "Integrating Agricultural Landscapes with Biodiversity Conservation in the Mesoamerican Hotspot". Conservation Biology. 22 (1): 8–15. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00863.x . PMID   18254848.
  5. ↑ Myers, Norman (24 Feb 2000). "Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities". Nature. 403 (6772): 853–858. Bibcode:2000Natur.403..853M. doi:10.1038/35002501. PMID   10706275.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Independent Evaluation Group (2011). "The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor" (PDF). Regional Program Review. 5 (2). Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  7. 1 2 "Regional Program Review: The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor" (PDF). pp. 2–11. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 DeClerck, Fabrice A.J.; Chazdon, Robin; Holl, Karen D.; Milder, Jeffrey C.; Finegan, Bryan; Martinez-Salinas, Alejandra; Imbach, Pablo; Canet, Lindsay; Ramos, Zayra (2010). "Biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes of Mesoamerica: Past, present and future". Biological Conservation. 143 (10): 2301–2313. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2010.03.026.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Johnson, Kenton Miller, Elsa Chang, Nels (2001). Defining common ground for the Mesoamerican biological corridor. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. ISBN   978-156973-473-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ Finley-Brook, Mary (2007). "Green Neoliberal Space: The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor". Journal of Latin American Geography. 6 (1): 101–124. doi:10.1353/lag.2007.0000.
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