Quintana Roo, Mexico

Mexico
Governor Carlos Manuel Joaquín Gonzáles
Representative Alfredo Arellano Guillermo SECRETARIO DE ECOLOGÍA Y MEDIO AMBIENTE DEL ESTADO DE QUINTANA ROO
Representative Rafael Robles de Benito Director de Cambio Climático de la Secretaría de Ecología y Medio Ambiente

Description

The state of Quintana Roo is located in the eastern part of the Mexican Republic, with its boundary to the east with the Caribbean Sea, to the north with the Gulf of Mexico and the state of Yucatan, to the west with the state of Campeche and to the south with Belize and Guatemala along a border of just over 180 km. The territory is approximately 5 million hectares occupying the 19th place in territorial extension in Mexico, although there is a territorial dispute with Campeche for just over 1/2 million hectares. The state has approximately 1000 km of coastline and 10 municipalities. Of the little more than 5 million hectares of state territory, around 4,160,000 hectares are currently covered by dense vegetation.

The three states of the Yucatan Peninsula (Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán) share similar ecological and social characteristics, which allows us to analyze certain dynamics jointly. In the Yucatan Peninsula, most of the natural forest is tropical (mainly of medium height and lowlands, with very few areas of the mountain forest) and parts of this area are high meadows (secondary or replacement forest, which is part of a long rotation of the milpa farming system). Currently there are different estimates of the evaluation of deforestation rates due to the different forest definitions, methods, time periods studied and scales of analysis (Rueda, 2010). Most of the studies focus on the loss and partial recovery of forest cover, paying attention to the central and southern regions of the Peninsula (Turner et al., 2004; Bray and Klepeis, 2005; Vester et al., 2007; Ellis and Porter-Bolland, 2008), probably related to the fact that this part of the Peninsula is designated a biological corridor.

For the period from 1993 to 2002, the predominant process in Quintana Roo was the degradation of the perennial tropical forests. Quintana Roo registered a higher rate of degradation than deforestation. Between 2002 and 2007 there was a significant trend toward human settlements and infrastructure, which was an important factor in deforestation.

More information can be found in the Impact Platform of the GCF.

Summary

Total Land Area 44,598 km²
% of Land That Is Forest 80.7 %
Deforestation Trend +0.0 % 2014 - 2015

Demographics

Population of State/Province 1.63 M
% of National Population 1.4%

Urban vs. Rural Population

Category %
Urban 88.00
Rural 12.00

Ethnic Groups

Group %
Other 90.00
Maya 0.10
Chol 0.01
Kanjobal 0.01
Tzotzil 0.01

Economy

State/Province GDP MXN 262,825
Annual Per Capita Income MXN 171,795

GDP Breakdown

Category %
Services 86.00
Industry, Mining 13.00
Agriculture, Forestry 1.00
Human Development Index 0.754
Main Exports Manufacturas e industria alimentaria

Forest Status

Original Forest Area 39,853 km²
Current Forest Area 35,997 km²
Total Area Deforested 3,856 km²
Total Forest Carbon 162 M MtC

Major Vegetation Types

Category km²
Primary Perrenial 28,839
Secondary Perennial Forest 3,471
Secondary Sub-deciduous Forest 2,587
Secondary Sub-deciduous Jungle 230
Primary Deciduous 43

Forest Management

Category km²
Ejido 27,942
Protected Area 3,129

Drivers of Deforestation

  1. Extensive livestock farming with the use of induced and cultivated pastures;
  2. Mechanized agriculture;
  3. RTQ traditional agriculture;
  4. Poor application of forest management due to deficiencies in the organization and technical capacities;
  5. Jungles without plans and programs of forest management;
  6. Deficient capacity of the organizations in community rural development;
  7. Low profitability of the forestry activities in front of the agribusinesses; and
  8. Deficient institutional coordination in the alignment and application of public policies.

Deforestation Rates

Notes

a.

Due to different methodological approaches and base years, Forest Status data fields may differ slightly. Data sources for each field are listed below.

Sources

1.

Gobierno del Estado de Quintana Roo link

2.

Mexico FREL link

3.

Secretaría de Desarrollo Económico link

4.

INEGI link

5.

Gobierno Quintana Roo

6.

Secretaría de Economía link

7.

México ¿Cómo vamos? link

8.

PNUD 2015 link

9.

México, cómo vamos, Exportaciones Julio 2015 link

10.

CONAFOR 2014

11.

INEGI/FCPF FREL

12.

OSSE; CONACYT