Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Integrating Agricultural Landscapes with Biodiversity Conservation in the Mesoamerican Hotspot

Integrating Agricultural Landscapes with Biodiversity Conservation in the Mesoamerican Hotspot Introduction The major challenge in tropical land management is to meet the ever‐growing demand for agricultural products while conserving biodiversity, providing critical ecosystem services, and maintaining rural livelihoods. This challenge is particularly acute in the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, a region of high conservation value for both wild and domesticated species that is undergoing rapid human population growth, ecological degradation, and loss of traditional farming systems ( Myers et al. 2000 ; Harvey et al. 2005 ). Approximately 80% of the region's vegetation has been converted to agriculture, threatening biodiversity. More than 300 of the region's endemic species of flora and fauna are threatened, including at least 107 that are critically endangered ( CI 2007 ). With continuing habitat loss (deforestation is 1.2%/year in Central America and Mexico combined; FAO 2005 ) and fragmentation of remaining forests, pressure on the region's biodiversity will intensify. Habitat destruction and fragmentation are not the only drivers of biodiversity loss in the region, however. Globalization of market forces, agricultural industrialization, migration, public policy, and cultural changes are driving the transformation of diverse, traditional, smallholder agroecosystems into agroindustrial systems dependent on chemical inputs and mechanization ( Conway & Rosset 1996 ; Perfecto et al. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Conservation Biology Wiley

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/integrating-agricultural-landscapes-with-biodiversity-conservation-in-h4pUbk1Hss

References (96)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
2008 Society for Conservation Biology
ISSN
0888-8892
eISSN
1523-1739
DOI
10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00863.x
pmid
18254848
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Introduction The major challenge in tropical land management is to meet the ever‐growing demand for agricultural products while conserving biodiversity, providing critical ecosystem services, and maintaining rural livelihoods. This challenge is particularly acute in the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, a region of high conservation value for both wild and domesticated species that is undergoing rapid human population growth, ecological degradation, and loss of traditional farming systems ( Myers et al. 2000 ; Harvey et al. 2005 ). Approximately 80% of the region's vegetation has been converted to agriculture, threatening biodiversity. More than 300 of the region's endemic species of flora and fauna are threatened, including at least 107 that are critically endangered ( CI 2007 ). With continuing habitat loss (deforestation is 1.2%/year in Central America and Mexico combined; FAO 2005 ) and fragmentation of remaining forests, pressure on the region's biodiversity will intensify. Habitat destruction and fragmentation are not the only drivers of biodiversity loss in the region, however. Globalization of market forces, agricultural industrialization, migration, public policy, and cultural changes are driving the transformation of diverse, traditional, smallholder agroecosystems into agroindustrial systems dependent on chemical inputs and mechanization ( Conway & Rosset 1996 ; Perfecto et al.

Journal

Conservation BiologyWiley

Published: Feb 1, 2008

There are no references for this article.