Miguel Alvarez del Toro: First and Last of a Kind

Abstract

Once in a blue moon an extraordinarily gifted naturalist and visionary conservationist finds his or her way to an incredibly biologically diverse region of the world, still in a nearly pristine state. It is even rarer when the person decides to stay there and to devote his or her entire life to studying the natural resources of that region, communicating findings to scientists and the public, and tirelessly promoting biological conservation. This is precisely what happened more than 50 years ago. The place was Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state, and the person was Professor Miguel Alvarez del Toro. The appropriate, committed person arrived at the right place at the right time. If he had not, we would know a lot less about the incomparable biological diversity of the region and we would not have as much of it left as we do today. He was one of the last of the all-around naturalists and the first of Mexico's modern conservationists.