Abstract
Most academic and popular forest narratives in Mexico and Central America have focused on forest loss or deforestation as the primary tendency in forest cover, with little attention paid to the possibilities of a forest transition. Indeed, the evidence suggests that in particular periods and places linear tendencies towards forest loss have been predominant. However, looking more closely at data from more recent periods suggests that in the last two decades more complex nonlinear patterns of deforestation, forest recovery, and forest maintenance in spite of proximate deforestation pressures characterize forest cover dynamics in the region. Forest maintenance is argued to be a result of particular forest uses that can include shade tree coffee, sustainable forest management for timber, and protected areas. Forest cover dynamics vary considerably from country to country in the region, as do the immediate prospects for a forest transition.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
AFE-COHDEFOR (2002) Informe sobre la funcionalidad global e institucional del sector forestal. Adminstración forestal del Estado AFE-COHDEFOR, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Allenby B (2005) Reconstructing earth: technology and environment in the age of humans. Island Press, Washington, DC
ANAM (2006a) Indicatores Ambientales de la República de Panama. 2006. Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente
ANAM (2006b) Informe: El Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas. Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente: Dirección Nacional de Áreas Protegidas y Vida Silvestre
Arroyo-Mora J, Calvo J, Janzen D, Rivard B, Sanchez-Azofeifa G (2005) Dynamics in landscape structure and composition for the Chorotega region, Costa Rica from 1960 to 2000. Agric Ecosyst Environ 106:27–39
Bacon C (2005) Confronting the coffee crisis: Can Fair Trade, organic, and specialty coffees reduce small-scale farmer vulnerability in Northern Nicaragua? World Dev 33(3):497–511
Barsimantov J, Navia Antezana J (2008) Land Use and Land Tenure Change in Mexico’s Avocado Production Region: Can Community Forestry Reduce Incentives to Deforest for High Value Crops?. Presented at “governing shared resources: connecting local experience to global challenges,” 12th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons, Cheltenham, England, July 14–18, 2008
Bass JO (2004) More trees in the tropics. Area 36:19–32
Bass JO (2006) Forty years and more trees: land cover change and coffee production in Honduras. Southeast Geogr 46:51–65
Bartra A (1996) El México bárbaro: plantaciones y monterías del sureste durante el Porfiriato. El Atajo Ediciones, Mexico, DF
Blackman A, Ávalos-Sartorio B, Chow J (2006) Tree cover loss in El Salvador’s shade coffee areas. Discussion Paper 07-32. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
Blackman A, Albers HJ, Ávalos-Sartorio B, Crooks L (2007) Land cover in a managed forest ecosystem: Mexican shade coffee. Discussion Paper 07-30. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
Bray DB, Ellis EA, Armijo N, Beck CT (2004) The institutional drivers of sustainable landscapes: a case study of the ‘Mayan Zone’ in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Land Use Policy 21:333–346
Bray DB, Klepeis P (2005) Deforestation, forest transitions, and institutions for sustainability in Southeastern Mexico, 1900–2000. Environ Hist 11:195–223
Bray DB, Anderson AB (2005) Global Conservation Non-Governmental Organizations & Local Communities: Perspectives on Programs and Project Implementation in Latin America. Working Paper No. 1. Conservation and Development Series. Institute for Sustainability Science in Latin America and the Caribbea, Florida International University, Miami, FL
Bray DB, Duran E, Anta S, Martin GJ, Mondragón F (2008) A new conservation and development frontier: community protected areas in Oaxaca, Mexico. Curr Conserv. 2(2):7–9
Bray DB, Duran E, Ramos VH, Mas J-F, Velázquez A, Barry D, Radachowsky J (2008) Tropical deforestation, community forests and protected areas in the Maya forest. Ecol Soc 13(2):56 [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art56
Brockett CD, Gottfried RR (2002) State policies and the preservation of forest cover: lessons from contrasting public-policy regimes in Costa Rica. Lat Am Res Rev 37(1):7–40
Brower LP, Castilleja G, Peralta A, López-Garcia J, Bojorquez-Tapia L, Diaz S, Melgarejo D, Missrie M (2002) Quantitative changes in forest quality in a principal overwintering area of the monarch butterfly in Mexico, 1971–1999. Conserv Biol 16(2):346–359
Bryant D, Nielsen D, Tangley L (1997) The last frontier forests: ecosystems and economics on the edge. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC
Calo M, Wise TA (2005) Revaluing peasant coffee production: organic and fair trade markets in Mexico. Global Development and Environment Institute, Medford, MA
Castro KL, Sanchez-Afofeifa GA, Rivard B (2003) Monitoring secondary tropical forests using space-borne data: implications for Central America. Int J Rem Sens 24:1853–1894
Cayuela L, Echeverría C, Rey J (2006) Clearance and fragmentation of tropical montane forests in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico (1975–2000). For Ecol Manag 226:208–218
Chomitz KM, Gray DA (1996) Roads, land use, and deforestation: a spatial model applied to Belize. World Bank Econ Rev 10(3):487–512
Chowdhury RR, Schneider C (2004) Land cover and land use: classification and change analysis. In: Turner BL II, Geoghegan J, Foster DR (eds) Integrated land-change science and tropical deforestation in the Southern Yucatán. Oxford University Press, New York
Consejo Nacional de Areas Protegidas/Wildlife Conservation Society (CONAP/WCS) (2004) Deforestation estimation in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, 2003–2004. Report. U.S. Agency for International Development. Washington, DC
Cortes A, Carrasco L (2004) Positiva recuperación de bosques. La Prensa. October 3
de Jong BHJ, Ochoa-Gaona S, Castillo-Santiago MA, Ramírez-Marcial N, Cairns MA (2000) Carbon flux and patterns of land-use/land-cover change in the Selva Lacandona, Mexico. Ambio 29:504–511
Duran E, Mas J-F, Velázquez A (2005) Land-use cover change in community-based forest management regions and protected areas in Mexico. In: Bray DB, Merino-Pérez L, Barry D (eds) The community forests of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX
Dushku A, Brown S, Hall M (2002) Modeling the deforestation and carbon emissions baseline in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area Climate Action Project, Belize, 1993–2035. Cooperative Agreement between Winrock International and the EPA ID# CR 827293-01-0. Product 5. Report of the application of GEOMOD to the Rio Bravo, Belize, project area. Winrock International, Arlington, VA
Emch M, Quinn JW, Peterson M, Alexander M (2005) Forest cover change in the Toledo District, Belize from 1975 to 1999: a remote sensing approach Prof Geogr 57(2):256–267
Food and Agriculture Organization (2005) State of the World’s Forests. FAO, Rome
Forrestel A, Peay KG (2006) Deforestation in a complex landscape: La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. J Sustain For 22(1/2):49–71
Geist HJ, Lambin EF (2001) What drives tropical deforestation? a meta-analysis of proximate and underlying causes of deforestation based on subnational case study evidence. LUCC International Project Office, Louvain
Gómez-Mendoza L, Vega Penya E, Isabel Ramírez M, Palacio-Prieto JL, Galicia L (2006) Projecting land-use change processes in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico. Appl Geogr 26:276–290
Grandia L (2006) Unsettling: land dispossession and enduring inequity for the Q’eqchi’ Maya in the Guatemalan and Belizean frontier colonization process. Ph.D. thesis. Department of Anthropology, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Hayes DJ, Sader SA, Schwartz NB (2002) Analyzing a forest conversion history database to explore the spatial and temporal characteristics of land cover change in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve. Landsc Ecol 17:299–314
Hayes TM (2007) Does tenure matter? A comparative analysis of agricultural expansion in the Mosquitia forest corridor. Hum Ecol 35:733–747
Hecht SB, Kandel S, Cuellar IG, Rosa H (2006) Globalization, forest resurgence, and environmental politics in El Salvador. World Dev 34:308–323
Hecht SB, Saatchi SS (2007) Globalization and forest resurgence: changes in forest cover in El Salvador. BioScience 57(8):663–672
Holder CC (2004) Changes in structure and cover of a common property pine forest in Guatemala 1954–1996. Environ Conserv 31(1):22–29
Humphries S (1998) Milk cows, migrants, and land markets: unraveling the complexities of forest-to-pasture conversion in Northern Honduras. Econ Dev Cult Change 47(1):95–124
Janzen DH (1988) Tropical dry forests: the most endangered major tropical ecosystem. In: Wilson EO (ed) Biodiversity. National Academic Press, Washington, DC
Johnson KA, Nelson KC (2004) Common property and conservation: the potential for effective communal forest management within a national park in Mexico. Hum Ecol 32(6):703–733
Joyce A, Sader S (1988) Deforestation rates and trends in Costa Rica, 1940 to 1983. Biotropica 20(1):11–19
Kaimowitz D (1996) Livestock and deforestation, Central America in the 1980s and 1990s: a policy perspective. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia
Kaiser J (2001) Bold corridor project confronts political reality. Science 293:2196–2199
Kammerbauer J, Cordoba B, Escolán R, Flores S, Ramirez V, Zeledón J (2001) Identification of development indicators in tropical mountainous regions and some implications for natural resource policy designs: an integrated community case study. Ecol Econ 36:45–60
Kammerbauer J, Ardon C (1999) Land use dynamics and landscape change pattern in a typical watershed in the hillside region of central Honduras. Agric Ecosyst Environ 75(1–2):93–100
Kappelle M, Juarez ME (1994) The Los Santos forest reserve: a buffer zone vital for the Costa Rican La Amistad Biosphere Reserve. Environ Conserv 21(2):166–169
Kleinn C, Corrales L, Morales D (2004) Forest area in Costa Rica: a comparative study of tropical forest cover estimates over time. Environ Monit Assess 73:1
Klooster D (2003) Forest transitions in Mexico: institutions and forests in a globalized countryside. Prof Geogr 55(2):227–237
Latifovic R, Zhu Z-L, Cihlar J, Giri C (2002) Land cover of North America 2000. Natural Resources Canada, Canada Center for Remote Sensing, US Geological Service EROS Data Center
Mathews AS (2003) Supressing Fire and Memory: Environmental Degradation and Political Restoration in the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca, 1887–2001. Env Hist 8(1):4–25
Mather A (1992) The forest transition. Area 24:367–379
Mendoza E, Dirzo R (1999) Deforestation in Lacandonia (southeast Mexico): evidence for the declaration of the northernmost tropical hot-spot. Biodivers Conserv 8:1621–1641
Moguel P, Toledo V (1999) Biodiversity conservation in traditional coffee systems of Mexico. Conserv Biol 13(1):1–21
Munroe DK, Southworth J, Tucker CM (2005) The dynamics of land-cover change in western Honduras: exploring spatial and temporal complexity. Agric Econ 27(3):355–369
Nagendra H, Southworth J, Tucker CM (2003) Accessibility as a determinant of landscape transformation in western Honduras: linking pattern and process. Landsc Ecol 18:141–158
National Geographic Society/Cultural Survival (2002) Map: the coexistence of indigenous peoples and the natural environment, National Geographic Society: Washington, DC
National Geographic Society/Center for the Support of Native Lands (2002) Map: indigenous peoples and natural ecosystems in Central America and Southern Mexico. National Geographic Society, Washington, DC
Ochoa-Gaona S, González-Espinosa M (2000) Land use and deforestation in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. Appl Geogr 20:17–42
Perfecto IR, Rice A, Greenberg R, Van der Voort ME (1996) Shade coffee: a disappearing refuge for biodiversity. BioScience 46(8):598–608
Perz S (2007) Grand theory and context-specificity in the study of forest dynamics: forest transition theory and other directions. Prof Geogr 59(1):105–114
Perz SG, Skole DL (2003) Secondary forest expansion in the Brazilian Amazon and the refinement of forest transition theory. Soc Nat Resour 16(1):277–294
Pfaff ASP, Sanchez-Azofeifa GA (2004) Deforestation pressure and biological reserve planning: a conceptual approach and an illustrative application for Costa Rica. Resour Energy Econ 26:237–254
Pratt L, Quijandría G (1997) Sectoral forestal en Honduras: análisis de sostenibilidad. INCAE, Costa Rica
Primack RB, Bray D, Galletti HA, Ponciano I (1998) Timber, tourists, and temples: conservation and development in the Maya Forest of Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. Island Press, Washington, DC
Rudel TK (2005) Tropical forests: regional paths of destruction and regeneration in the late twentieth century. Columbia University Press, New York
Rudel TK, Coomes OT, Moran E, Achard F, Angelsen A, Xu J, Lambin E (2005) Forest transitions: towards a global understanding of land use change. Glob Environ Change 15:23–31
Sanchez-Azofeifa GA, Harriss RC, Skole DL (2001) Deforestation in Costa Rica: a quantitative analysis using remote sensing imagery. Biotropica 33(3):378–384
Sanchez-Azofeifa GA, Rivard B, Calvo J, Moorthy I (2002) Dynamics of tropical deforestation around national parks. Mt Res Dev 22(4):352–358
Sanchez-Azofeifa GA, Daily GC, Pfaff ASP, Busch C (2003) Integrity and isolation of Costa Rica’s national parks and biological reserves: examining the dynamics of land-cover change. Biol Conserv 109:123–135
Schelhas J, Sanchez-Azofeifa GA (2006) Post-Frontier forest change adjacent to Braulio Carillo National Park, Costa Rica. Hum Ecol 34(3):407–420
Southworth J, Tucker C (2001) The influence of accessibility, local institutions, and socioeconomic factors on forest cover change in the mountains of Western Honduras. Mt Res Dev 21(3):276–283
Southworth J, Nagendra H, Carlson L, Tucker C (2004a) Assessing the impact of Celaque National Park on forest fragmentation in western Honduras. Appl Geogr 24:303–322
Southworth J, Munroe D, Nagendra H (2004b) Land cover change and landscape fragmentation – comparing the utility of continuous and discrete analyses for a western Honduras region. Agric Ecosyst Environ 101:185–205
Stern N (2007) Economics of climate change: the Stern review. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Trejo I, Dirzo R (2000) Deforestation of seasonally dry tropical forest a national and local analysis in Mexico. Biol Conserv 94(1):133–142
Tucker CM (1999) Private versus common property forests: forest conditions and tenure in a Honduran community. Hum Ecol 27:201–230
Tucker C, Munroe D, Nagendra H, Southworth J (2005) Comparative spatial analyses of forest conservation and change in Honduras and Guatemala. Conserv Soc 3(1):174–200
Tucker RP (2000) Insatiable appetite: the United States and the ecological degradation of the third world. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
UVG (2006) Dinámica de la cobertura forestal de Guatemala durante los años 1991,1996 y 2001 y mapa de cobertura forestal 2001. Fase II:Dinámica de la cobertura forestal. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Instituto Nacional de Bosques, Consejo Nacional de Áreas Protegidas: Guatemala, Guatemala
Varangis P, Siegel P, Giovannucci D, Lewin B (2003) Dealing with the coffee crisis in Central America: impacts and strategies. Policy Research Working Paper 2993. Development Research Group, Rural Development. World Bank, Washington, DC
Veblen TT (1978) Forest preservation in the western Highlands of Guatemala. Geogr Rev 68(4):417–434
Velázquez A, Duran E, Ramírez I, Mas J-F, Bocco G, Ramírez G, Palacio JL (2003) Land use-cover change processes in highly biodiverse areas: the case of Oaxaca, Mexico. Glob Environ Change 13:175–184
Velázquez A, Durán E, Mas J-F, Bray D, Bocco G (2005) Situación Actual y perspectiva del cambio de la cubierta vegetal y usos de suelo en México. Ed. Elena Zúñiga Herrera. México, antes los desafíos de desarrollo del milenio. Consejo Nacional de Población, Mexico City, Mexico
Victor DG, Ausubel JH (2000) Restoring the forests. Foreign Aff 79(6):127–144
Vreugdenhil D, Meerman J, Meyrat A, Gómez LD, Graham DJ (2002) Map of the ecosystems of Central America: final report. World Bank, Washington, DC
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Daniel Gann, Florida International University GIS Laboratory for help in image processing and to Danna Planas for research assistance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bray, D.B. (2009). Forest Cover Dynamics and Forest Transitions in Mexico and Central America: Towards a “Great Restoration”?. In: Nagendra, H., Southworth, J. (eds) Reforesting Landscapes. Landscape Series, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9656-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9656-3_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9655-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9656-3
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)