Mapping Forest And Agroforestry Units For Environmental Planning. Study Case Transboundary Region Mexico-Guatemala

Abstract

The cross-border region of Mexico and Guatemala is part of the continuum in the aspects of relief, climate, hydrography, geology, land cover and land use of Mesoamerica, one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet. Historically, the region has been continuously affected by meteorological phenomena, such as mass movement in the highland and floods in the lowland, which affected cities, communities and production activities year after year and led to the loss and deterioration of the ecosystems. To handle this problem, a proposal for environmental planning is suggested. The final objective is to provide key information that concerns the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals, particularly related to the protection and restoration of forest areas. In this study, spatial analysis and modeling were applied to map homogeneous units for environmental planning in the Mexico-Guatemala trans-border region. Additionally, forest area as a proportion of the total land area, its share inside the natural protected areas and distribution by ecosystem type were calculated for 2010 and 2019. From the data analysis it was found that the total forest area in the region has decreased from 47% in 2010 to 43 % in 2019; 27% and 25% of the total area, respectively, correspond to forests within the natural protected areas. The principal ecosystem type in the Natural Protected Areas corresponds to tropical forest. Two conclusions can be drawn, that agroforestry zoning is an important tool to monitor forest areas in the context of achieving Sustainable Development Goals and that the natural protected areas play a fundamental role in the preservation of the forest in the region.