Marine and terrestrial protected areas in Mexico: Importance of their functional connectivity in conservation management

Abstract

In coastal zones, natural protected areas have been created without considering the relationship between the two environments they involve. This is currently a crucial challenge for conservation efforts, because the protection initiatives taken in coastal watersheds need to be integrated with the marine component. With the aim of contributing to increase the knowledge in this issue, the present work analyzes the current state of conservation efforts in the Mexican coastal zone, based on a simplified theoretical approach focusing the coastal zones as a group of ecotones functionally connected by the flow of matter end energy. We found that only 16 of 92 Mexican coastal watersheds have natural protected areas in all the ecotones analyzed, whereas 15 of them lack of any kind of protection. The present investigation may facilitate the appraisal of gaps in watersheds and coastal ecotones conservation management, with emphasis on the connectivity between marine and terrestrial environments of the coastal zone.