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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: FIRE AND THE MESOAMERICAN BIOLOGICAL CORRIDOR

The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC) is perhaps the largest and most complex sustainable development project to date (1). The initiative was endorsed formally by Central American nations in the 1992 XII Reunion de Presidentes Centroamericanos Convenio Para la Conservacion de la Biodiversidad y Proteccion de Areas Silvestres Prioritas en America Central, and signed by the Alliance for Sustainable Development in the Americas in 1994. As early as 1989, however, the governments of Central America established the Comisión Centroamericana de Ambiente y Desarrollo, an institution responsible for coordinating regional environmental and sustainable development activities. Because of its unprecedented size and scope, and its methods for achieving its goals of conservation and sustainable development, serious concerns exist about whether the MBC is a viable option for attaining sustainable development in Central America. In addition, local and indigenous groups contend that the intrusions on their lands and culture to establish conservation projects are ill-conceived and, in many cases, illegal (1).

Among the long list of economic, political, and ecological challenges the MBC faces, fire is one of the least mentioned and least studied, although probably one of its major threats. The northern parts of this corridor (e.g.,Yucatan, Chiapas, and Guatemala), which are especially affected by El Niño, have experienced severe forest fires since the El Niño of 1986-1987. Research in Chiapas revealed that in 1986 and 1987 more than 200,000 ha of rain forests were burned. The 1997-1998 El Niño fires also affected Chiapas with events such as the Chimalapas forest fires (56,000 ha), one-third of which affected the Selva El Ocote Biosphere Reserve, and fires in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve (10,000 ha) (2). A total of 198,000 ha were affected in Chiapas in the 1998 ENSO episode. Due to the synergistic effects of fire in tropical forests, El Niño returned again to El Ocote in 2003, affecting 20,000 ha with some areas of complete vegetation removal (3). Guatemala also experienced major fires in 2003, many in protected land. The public was unaware of most of those fires, although they were documented with satellite imagery (4). In 2005, fires spread through dozens of Guatemalan parks (5) and forests in Chimalapas (6).

Repeated fires (many of them in protected areas), cumulative effects of severe fires, insufficient fire management budgets, and lack of fire planning are resulting in major changes in land cover across thousands of hectares of the MBC. Money, community involvement, political will, and expert knowledge are required if something meaningful is to be done in the last remaining tropical forests of Central America.

(1) Craig Metrick. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/colombia/puebla/mesoamerican-corridor/

(2) Comision Nacional para las Areas Protegidas. CONANP. Programa de Manejo de Montes Azules. http://conanp.gob.mx/anp/programas_manejo/montes_azules.pdf

(3) Global Fire Monitoring Center. Some visual impressions of fire in Chiapas. www.fire.uni-freiburg.de/photos/mx/mx_1.htm

(4) NASA Observatory. Mesoamerican fires 20 April 2003. www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/16may_biocorridors.html

(5) Alberto Ramirez. Arde Peten (Burning Peten). 29 March 2005. www.prensalibre.com/pl/2005/marzo/29/110859.html

(6) Arden Los Chimalapas. (Fire in Los Chimalapas). 13 May 2005. www.imparcialenlinea.com/noticias.php?id=10344

Rosa Maria Román Cuesta
School of Geography and the Environment
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
rroman@ouce.ox.ac.uk

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