A New Roadmap for Conservation

One tool we have for doing this is maps. Maps can generate the information necessary to craft policies that advance more sustainable development. As part of TNC’s initiative to reach net-zero deforestation by 2030 in the region through the Yucatan Peninsula Framework Agreement on Sustainability, we have partnered with public agencies to develop two complementary, groundbreaking maps.

These production and conservation mapping tools provide footing for our initiatives, helping conserve forests, while promoting sustainable intensification of agricultural and productive activities. One mapping tool shows us where it is critical to conserve forests, while the second can help determine where efforts and investments will generate the highest returns in terms of productivity and food security without continuing to expand the agricultural frontier. Together, they can catalyze this unprecedented initiative and promote sustainable rural development throughout the country based on a data-driven, scientific approach.

First is the High-Resolution Reference Map, (asset is in Spanish) which is based on satellite imagery and shows on a scale of 1: 20,000—down to a mapping unit of half a hectare—where forests are present or absent. It is the result of a working group combining official data from the environmental, agriculture and forestry ministries into a single cartographic platform that displays what is on the ground with 90% certainty, updated every two years.

The second tool, known as the Sustainable Production Zoning Map, complements the previous one by indicating open areas where agricultural production can be intensified without expanding into standing forests. It displays areas of highest productivity potential for 19 different crops, including soy, corn and beef, based on variables such as climate, topography, soil and multiple systems of production, from large-scale monocultures to the traditional milpa system of staple crop diversification for local and family consumption. It also maps forested areas to show the priority areas for conservation, as well as areas with the highest potential for forest management.

But why are these mapping tools so important?

By providing extremely accurate and relevant data to all stakeholders involved in land use, production and conservation, mapping tools can help change the way decisions are made around urban growth, agriculture, ranching and more, all in a way that promotes forest conservation. For communities, industries and governments, and every player in between, they are precision instruments for designing activities while complying with laws and commitments to protect forests and contribute to a deforestation-free economy.

Diverse government agencies in Mexico will be able to draw information from the maps to align oftentimes competing programs and target agricultural and forest conservation subsidies toward areas best suited to each activity. The environmental ministry and forestry commission (SEMARNAT and CONAFOR) can use the High-Resolution Reference Map to direct public programs and incentives toward areas critical to forest protection and restoration based on criteria that mapping technology can detect on the ground. Mexico’s agriculture ministry, SAGARPA, can simultaneously use both maps to direct subsidies to areas of high-productivity farming that pose lower threat of deforestation.

The maps can also steer sustainable and sound activities in the private, financial and social sectors. Food industry stakeholders in the region can use them to ensure efficient, productive and deforestation-free supply chains to meet standards and pledges. Meanwhile, development banks and trusts can define eligibility zones for green credit lines, and reduce risks associated with lending, based on scientifically-backed productivity data.

“Our work developing these conservation mapping tools in the Mayan Forest is at the leading edge of monitoring and landscape planning tools,” says Justin Adams, managing director for Global Lands at the Conservancy. “Providing this kind of data to governments and businesses enables them to make better choices about how they balance production and protection in a landscape.”

Ultimately, local communities, too, benefit from these tools—providing this information helps them to guide their productive activities based on the most adequate uses for their land without sacrificing forests and their natural capital.

The production and conservation mapping tools have been developed initially for the Yucatan Peninsula and parts of southern Mexico, covering around 40% of the country’s territory. For the past five years, TNC has articulated multiple strategies to promote sustainable development in this region, from empowering communities to steward their lands more sustainably to promoting policy-level action and activating green markets, and these maps can help us to execute all these strategies more effectively.

In fact, this cartographic technology has the potential to scale nationally, charting a path toward a sustainable future in Mexico and beyond.

To learn more about The Nature Conservancy’s strategies to conserve forests and help communities thrive in Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula, including the use of scientific tools like state-of-the-art maps, visit Alianza MexicoREDD+.