Neotropical Forest Conservation, Agricultural Intensification, and Rural Out-Migration: The Mexican Experience

• Published in: Bioscience Vol. 59; no. 10; pp. 863 - 873
• Main Authors: García-Barrios, Luis, Galván-Miyoshi, Yankuic M, Valdivieso-Pérez, Ingrid Abril, Masera, Omar R, Bocco, Gerardo, Vandermeer, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Circulation, AIBS, 1313 Dolley Madison Blvd., Suite 402, McLean, VA 22101. USA University of California Press 01-11-2009; American Institute of Biological Sciences; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: 21st Century Directions in Biology; afforestation; agricultural intensification; Agricultural land; Agricultural Occupations; Agricultural Production; Agriculture; Area Studies; Capital investments; Commercial forests; Company business management; Conservation (Concept); Corn; Deforestation; Degraded forests; development and conservation; Environmental economics; Environmental management; Environmental protection; Evaluation; Farms; Forest conservation; Forest cover; Forest management; forest transition; Individualized Instruction; Industrial agriculture; Industrialization; Intensive farming; Investment; Labor; Land Use; literature reviews; Management; Market economies; Mexico; Migration; Neoliberalism; Old growth forests; out-migration; OVERVIEW ARTICLES; Recessions; Reforestation; Rural Population; rural urban migration; Social Action; Sustainable agriculture; Technological change; Trade liberalization; Tropical environments; Tropical forests; Urbanization; Mexico; forest transition; Mexico; agricultural intensification; development and conservation; out-migration
• ISSN: 0006-3568; 1525-3244
• DOI: 10.1525/bio.2009.59.10.8

Forest loss in the tropics is one of the most critical contemporary environmental problems. Understanding the complex sociopolitical and ecological forces operative in producing this problem has thus become an important scientific mandate. Some recent literature has suggested that modern market economy trends in Latin America—namely, rural out-migration and policies strongly favoring high-input, industry-based agriculture—have helped curtail and sometimes revert the net loss of tropical forests, mainly through afforestation of land abandoned by smallholders. Government in Mexico, a megadiverse country with one of the biggest out-migration and remittance economies in the world, has excelled in applying free-market policies and in discouraging historical smallholder agriculture. Our analysis of Mexico's development path and of recent deforestation and reforestation trends at the national, regional, and local levels shows that, contrary to expectations, net deforestation is still occurring, and that other development, agricultural, and reforestation strategies are needed.