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European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol. 12, No. 2

Publication Date: April 25, 2024

DOI:10.14738/aivp.122.16246

Daniel, M. L. L., & Aristides, S. G. (2024). Mapping Forestry Suitability Land and Landuse in the Highland, Usumacinta Watershed,

Mexico. European Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol - 12(2). 15-30.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

Mapping Forestry Suitability Land and Landuse in the Highland,

Usumacinta Watershed, Mexico

Daniel M. Lopez L.

Centroo de investigación en Ciencias de Información Geoespacial, Ciudad de México

Aristides Saavedra G.

Centro de investigación en Ciencias de Información Geoespacial, Ciudad de México

ABSTRACT

The Usumacinta Watershed is a trans-boundary basin shared by Mexico,

Guatemala, and Belize. It is one of the ecosystems of great importance with a

diversity of habitats and species, many of them unique to this area. In the last

decades, the anthropic pressure have exerted on natural ecosystems and land

dedicated to productive activities has been increasing, causing intense negative

environmental effects on soil, water, flora and fauna resources, as well as on the

ecosystems services that this ecosystem provide. It is the objective of this paper

mapping and analyze the forest land suitability and its present land use. Base of

land suitability, the forest land suitability were defined, grouping it in three classes:

f1- forest land, slope 12-25%, f-2 Forest land, slope 25-50%, and f3- forest land,

slope >50%; by overlay these classes with present land use, the area occupied for

each one of land-use was defined ; besides considering the natural protected areas,

the proportion that occur inside and outside of this area was defined.From the

results can be draw that the forest land suitability in the upland area of Usumacinta

watershed occupied an important extension ( 61.45%) of total area, being group

”f2- 25-50%”, the dominant; the most part of conserved forest areas are inside of

natural protected areas. Nevertheless, outside of protected areas there are

considerable areas of land forest (according to land suitability) where the natural

vegetation, because antropic pressure, has been replaced to secondary vegetation,

grasslands and crops; because of high environmental risk of these uses, they must

be considered in a program to recovery the natural vegetation for conservation and

protection of soils, water and forests resources.

Keywords: Forest land, land suitability, Land use, Usumacinta Watershed, Natural

protected areas.

INTRODUCTION

The importance of forests can be analyzed from several perspectives, one of the most relevant

is related to the provision of various environmental services, according to their functionality,

which are essential for the functioning of ecosystems as such, as well as for society in at global,

regional, and very important for local communities that occupy forest territories.Some of the

benefits derived from the existence of forest and particularly, in this case, tropical rainforest

and the essential ecological processes that take place there: the production of oxygen, capture

and retention of water, the generation and maintenance of the soil, the contribution to local,

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European Journal of Applied Sciences (EJAS) Vol. 12, Issue 2, April-2024

regional and global climate stability, the provision and recycling of nutrients, oxygenation and

water filtration.To this is added value as a source of resource supply (e.g., water, timber), the

intrinsic values of the germplasm bank they constitute and the still intangible values of wild

species with medicinal or agricultural potentialities that have not yet been discovered or

developed (1).

The Usumacinta Basin is a trans-boundary basin shared by Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize (a

small portion). It is one of the ecosystems of great natural wealth with a diversity of habitats

and species, many of them unique to this area and with extraordinary archaeological remains

that are the heritage of millenarian cultures; is located within one of the most important areas

among the world’s 25 biodiversity “hot spots” in terms of species diversity and endemic (2). In

this region, natural vegetation with a little degree of intervention is conformed by temperate

forests - tropical rain forests and and wetlands, the last two are found mainly in natural

protected areas, comprises 33.7% of the total area. In relation to the generation and

maintenance of the soil resource, the role of forest is of fundamental relevance in hillside lands,

therefore, these areas are considered to be suitable for forest cover mainly. In the Usumacinta

Watershed, this aspect is becoming increasingly important due to the strong pressure exerted

on these lands as a result of the expansion of the agricultural frontier, catalyzed in part by

population growth and land scarcity.

In Mexico during the last decades, the anthropic pressure exerted on natural ecosystems and

land dedicated to productive activities has been increasing, causing intense negative

environmental effects on soil, water, flora and fauna resources, and on ecosystems services that

that ecosystem provide. As a result of this, the 63.0% of watershed area corresponds to the

coverage associated with anthropogenic action that includes grassland, agriculture,

plantations, shrub vegetation (acahuales1) and urban areas; in the upland sector, many of the

agricultural areas are located on hillside lands with slopes of 12-50% and higher and shallow

soils, which are not suitable for such purposes. In these areas, the agricultural activity causes

the processes of land degradation (water erosion, deforestation, loss of biodiversity), which

translates into floods in the lower areas due to the high runoff generated in the upper parts of

the watershed, briefly place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important.

It is the objective of this study to define and map such areas (hillside lands), as well as to analyze

them in relation to current land use, particularly in relation to the presence or absence of forest

cover. In addition, the role of local communities in the use and management of the territory will

be analyzed in a general way. Ultimately, the aim is to provide to the government institutions

in charge of land use planning, with tools that will allow them to establish conservation and/or

restoration programs, as well as to define priorities on conservation and or restoration, in those

areas where the use is not appropriate.

FOREST AND LAND SUITABILITY

The There are several conceptual and methodological approaches to evaluate land suitability,

two of the most widely used are the ago-ecological zoning developed by Food and Agriculture

1 Acahual is a term used in Mexico to refer to a secondary or regenerating forest found in a previously disturbed area,

such as land that has been used for agriculture or cattle ranching, It is associated with the shifting agriculture system .

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Daniel, M. L. L., & Aristides, S. G. (2024). Mapping Forestry Suitability Land and Landuse in the Highland, Usumacinta Watershed, Mexico. European

Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol - 12(2). 15-30.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.122.16246

Organization (FAO) and the classification by land use capacity, developed by the United States

Soil Conservation Service (USDA). The latter classification system groups soils into three

categories: class, subclass and management group. The classes by capacity of use group soils

with similar degree of limitations or risks that can affect soils and crops. There are eight classes

and they are designated with roman numerals, starting with class I, which does not represent

limitations for agriculture, up to class VIII, which has no agricultural or livestock potential (3).

The sub-classes are divisions of the classes and group lands that have the same number and

similar degrees of limitations and risks in their use. There are five sub classes: (t) slope, (e)

susceptibility to erosion, (h) humidity - drainage conditions, (s) soils and (c) climate. This

classification is applicable for agricultural, livestock, agroforestry, forestry and protection

conservation purposes, and brings together various aspects that determine and condition the

most suitable use for each soil, as well as some recommended management and conservation

practices (4).

Particularly the subclass (t) slope is relevant in the evaluation of hillside suitability, where

annual crops can catalyze degradation problems (soil erosion) in such lands. In this sense such

areas are considered as very fragile ecosystems (5, 6) or marginal lands, in most of cases from

crops production perspective (7,8,9,10). It is important to note that the term fragile or marginal

lands refers to these lands that if are used for agriculture, but if they retain natural vegetation,

the term does not apply, and may be areas of great value, for example from a biodiversity point

of view. Therefore, is here where forest cover plays a fundamental role in the conservation of

soil and water resources, as well as being strongholds of biodiversity, and therefore are

considered as suitable for this type of cover, and it is recommended that such areas should be

retained under their natural state (11,5).

According to FAO (11), “mountain regions are identified as fragile through a combination of

problems, combining erosion hazard with forest clearance and other forms of land degradation.

Agenda 21 (12) identifies‘mountain regions’ as a second fragile environment. The dominant

environmental feature is steep slopes (>30%), together with areas of steep slopes (8-30%),

coupled with particular roles in forest production, as water catchments, as reserves of

biological diversity, and for recreation. On the other hand the steep slopes, in combination with

deforestation bring about land degradation through landsliding and soil erosion; most such

land should be kept under natural vegetation”.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The Study Area

The Usumacinta watershed, is an important trans-boundary basin encompasses 77.265 km2,

from which the 43.6% (34,237.4 km2) is located in Mexico (area considered in this study),

56.3% (43,198.6 km2 ) in Guatemala and 0.04% in Belize (figure 1).