The Mesoamerican isthmus, with an area of less than one-half of a percent of the Earth’s land surface, is home to 7% of the world’s known species, a result of the Great American Biotic Interchange (Marshall, 1979). And yet, due primarily to the tumultuous sociopolitical development of these Central American states, the resultant landscape is a patchwork of land use. Of the entire regional population, more than half live in rural areas and at least two-thirds of the rural population are poor (Richards, 2004). With only 20% of primary vegetation remaining, Mesoamerica presents a particular challenge to conservation practitioners and development specialists alike. Here I trace the evolution of a unique regional initiative known as the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor (MBC), which originally took root from a project known as Paseo Pantera. Over the past twenty years, the MBC has morphed from a sole focus on establishing wildlife corridors, to one focused on achieving both development and conservation objectives within the region.
Two questions guide this paper:
Has the MBC been successful in achieving both conservation and poverty reduction success in the areas that it has prioritized?
What is the potential now for the MBC to help safeguard vital ecosystem services and guide regional climate mitigation initiatives?
Results/Conclusions
I explore how changes in the overall mission of the MBC are reflected in the altered spatial design and prioritization of local corridors. I examine the challenges and successes that have been achieved in terms of conservation priorities and poverty reduction at the national level, and present a summary of criticism of the initiative. Finally, I look at the MBC through the lens of climate change. With a meta-analysis of payments for ecosystem service projects and REDD+-related initiatives in the region, I examine to what extent the MBC can be a framework for implementation and help guide financial resources to areas where minimum tradeoffs between biodiversity and poverty reduction can be achieved.