The dying Mexican tropical dry forest: Finding treasures among the ruins

Abstract

For centuries the tropical dry forests in Mexico have been the best and sometimes the only source of energy-providing fuelwoods, ritual and medicinal resources, decorative plantstuffs, construction materials, pasture lands, and, of course, food for its human inhabitants. Long dependent on the forest for day-to-day sustenance, rural dwellers now find the forest dependent on them for its very survival because the few small patches of typical primary tropical dry forest that still exist are rapidly disappearing. This disappearance parallels the loss of coastal dry forests in Brazil, the invasion of Costa Rican dry forests by alien grass, and the threats to Mediterranean dry forests. Despite the erosion of tropical dry forests around the world, rain forests continue to get most of the attention. These authors turn our attention to the plight of this unique ecosystem and offer for consideration a multi-faceted plan to use its germplasm and genetic resources to reclaim some of its lost domain and to insure a proper accounting of its true value.