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Sustainable Communities to preserve biological diversity
Concept DocumentPrepared byFrancisco Chapela/Estudios Rurales y Asesoría Campesina February, 20091
 
Sustainable Communities to preserve biological diversity
Concept DocumentPrepared byFrancisco Chapela/Estudios Rurales y Asesoría Campesina February, 2009
1. Background / Mesoamerica biological diversity
The cultural region called
meso-america
,comprises a complex of cultures extendingfrom central Mexico to mid-Central America(Nicaragua and Honduras). Mexico alone isconsidered a
megadiverse
country. 10% of 
 
world species are in Mexico. Added to thissingle-country diversity, Mexico alone hasgreat biological importance, making it:• 1rst place on reptiles diversity• 2nd in mammals diversity• 4rth in amphibian diversity• 4rth in vascular plants diversity• 10th in birds diversity.Mesoamerica as a bio-cultural region, may certainly have higher biological importance.But Mesoamerican biological diversity is interweaved with cultural diversity, making itimpossible to separate cultural and biological diversity. Compared with other American bio-cultural areas, Mesoamerica has:• A long record of human influence on landscape. Human activities flourished in thearea as soon as the last glacial period receded.• at least 50 recognized linguistic groupings• a population density 70% higher than U.S.• more than twice Brazil population density• 17 times higher than Canada2
 
• Much less functional protected areas than Brazil or Costa RicaAlthough considerable efforts have been taken in the last 20 years to develop environmentallaws and national protected areas systems, it is clear that a system based just in biologicalconsiderations is not enough to preserve the dynamic relationships between cultural landuses and biological diversity at the landscape level.
National Environment Laws in Mesoamerica
México
, 1982: Ley Federal de Protección al Ambiente
Guatemala
, 1986: Ley para la Protección y Mejoramiento del Medio Ambiente
México
, 1988: Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente (que sustituyó a la ley Federalde Protección al Ambiente de 1982)
Honduras
, 1993: Ley general del Ambiente
Nicaragua
, 1996: Ley general del Medio Ambiente y los Recursos Naturales
El Salvador 
, 1998: Ley del Medio Ambiente
For example, the gap analysis recently undertaken by the Mexican biological diversityauthority, recognizes that there are a lot of priority points, where biological values are highand may be threatened, and the official PAs system has no coverage, or where PAs aredeclared, they are not effective or are threatened:3
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