conservation action and protected areasAbout 13 percent, or 142,000 km², of the total land area of the Mesoamerica hotspot is currently under some form of protection, though only 64,000 km² (six percent) of this is in IUCN categories I to IV. In two countries, national percentages for protected land are more than twice the hotspot average: Belize (37 percent) and Costa Rica (31 percent). El Salvador has the lowest percentage of protected land area; approximately two percent of the country is under protective status.Many of the parks in Mesoamerica exist on paper only and need improved enforcement and management in order to effectively conserve biodiversity. The integrity of many protected areas is further threatened by communities that live in or around the parks and must poach for food or clear agricultural lands within park borders in order to meet their basic needs.In recent decades, there has been important progress in regional cooperation and dialogue toward the creation and expansion of the transnational Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, a regional initiative aimed at conserving biodiversity and ecosystems while at the same time promoting sustainable social and economic development. The initiative attempts to protect important areas for biodiversity and provide connectivity between these areas through biodiversity-friendly plantation forests, agroforestry systems, and private reserves, to allow for the dispersal of plants and animals. Mesoamerican countries have been eager to participate in the creation of the corridor because it provides a tangible goal in the face of daunting conservation priorities. Among the important protected areas that comprise this initiative are the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala, a 10,000-km² expanse of tropical forest; the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche, Mexico, with 7,000 km²; the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas, Mexico, covering 3,300 km²; the Rio Bravo protected area in Belize; La Amistad International Park and Biosphere reserve in Costa Rica and Panama, the largest block of undisturbed cloud forest in Central America and a convergence point for 75 percent of all migratory birds in the Western Hemisphere; and Guanacaste Conservation Area in northwestern Costa Rica.One method for identifying priority areas for the expansion of protected areas systems is by identifying sites for species that face the greatest risk of global extinction. Globally threatened species are best protected through the conservation of sites in which they occur; these sites are referred to as "key biodiversity areas" (KBAs). KBAs are discrete biological units that contain one or more globally threatened or restricted-range species, and can potentially be managed for conservation as a single unit. In the Mesoamerica hotspot, Conservation International and partners have been working on KBA identification in the northern portion (Mexico east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Belize and Guatemala), Costa Rica, and Panama, building off of the Important Bird Areas identified by BirdLife International partners in Mexico and Panama. The process will continue as the collaboration expands to include all the countries of the hotspot during the next year. The La Amistad International Park in Costa Rica and Panama, the only place in the world from which the salamander Oedipina grandis (CR) has been recorded, is an example of the potential for developing a regional network of transboundary protected areas. Here the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund is facilitating a regional approach to protecting Mesoamerica’s biodiversity by supporting bi- and tri-national conservation initiatives. The Cerro El Pital between Honduras and El Salvador, a site protected only on the Honduran side of the border by the Cerro El Pital Biological Reserve, and the only place in the world where the frog Bolitoglossa synoria (CR) occurs, serves as another example of the potential for expanding the network of protected areas through transboundary conservation intitiatives.Ecotourism has become an important sector in nearly every country in Mesoamerica, notably Costa Rica, which is probably the world's best-known example of the successful promotion of economic benefit from conservation. In 2000, Costa Rica earned about $1.25 billion from ecotourism, and it is estimated that 70 percent of the country’s tourists visit natural protected areas.In addition, several national level institutions for biodiversity conservation, including INBIO in Costa Rica and CONABIO in Mexico, are successfully promoting greater awareness and sustainable use of biodiversity, while smaller local institutions, such as the Belize Zoo and Mexico's Miguel Alvarez del Toro Zoological Park, promote knowledge, pride, and conservation of native fauna among the citizens of Mesoamerica.
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© Conservation International, photo by Haroldo Castro
La Amistad International Park and Biosphere Reserve, where this photo was taken, protects the largest block of cloud forest in Mesoamerica.
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