Historical State of Tropical Dry Forests

There is not a lot of information on the historical status of tropical dry forests in Mexico at large, but information about specific areas of tropical dry forest and government policies help us compile a general idea of the status of tropical dry forests in Mexico historically and how that differs from today. Tropical dry forests have historically supported large numbers of humans because its ecosystem characteristics are attractive to people for both settlement and development. Tropical dry forests were once large and continuous before humans began exploiting the lands (Portillo-Quintero and Sánchez-Azofeifa 144). Tropical dry forests on a global scale have been severely affected by “human-induced environmental degradation” or anthropogenic effects. Various reports on the historical status of tropical dry forests suggest that the ecosystem only became heavily endangered and fragmented after human settlement and use of the lands. As more people settled on tropical dry forests, the more the lands were exploited. A large portion of tropical dry forest was lost in the 1970s when the Mexican government supported the clearing of tropical dry forest along the Pacific coast of Jalisco. Bulldozers were used to clear the forest for agriculture, cattle ranching, tourism, and housing uses Romero-Duque, Jaramillo, and Perez-Jimenez 39). By 1980, forty-four percent of the original global area of tropical dry forests was eliminated due to human use. Some of the human uses included converting the forests into grasslands for cattle grazing, use of slash and burn agriculture, and the use of wood as fuel (Galicia, Zarco-Arista, Mendoza-Robles, Palacio-Prieto, and García-Romero 138). So, it seems as though tropical dry forests have been negatively impacted by human use for hundreds of years, but the urgency to preserve them has been relatively recent due to increased environmental awareness and due to the increase in population which has put more stress on tropical dry forests as they are more heavily exploited. 

Source: (Castillo, Magaña, Pujadas, Martínez, and Godínez, 635)

This timeline shows the progression of the Chamela-Cuixmala region in Jalisco, Mexico from the time indigenous people began settlements on the area to 1999. As you can see, from 1492 to 1661, there was very low impact of human activities and the tropical dry forests in this region were still intact. However, once the creation of haciendas began and land started to be distributed to the peasants, the tropical dry forests started to be heavily used for agriculture and cattle grazing. This led to negative impacts on the environment, but they were still relatively low and manageable. From about the 1950s to the 1980s the two main drivers of economic development were tourism and agricultural development and this is about the time researchers began to see major transformations of tropical dry forests. Only more recently, in 1988 were there strong efforts to conserve this area of tropical dry forest.