LATIN AMERICA

Mexico

Area: 1.964,375 km² 

Geography:  Mexico lies between Guatemala and the United states, bordering the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, Belize and the North Pacific Ocean. The different terrains, including high mountain ranges and low coastal plains, as well as plateaus and deserts inherit an equal variation of climate zones, ranging from tropical to arid. Tsunamis and hurricanes on the pacific coasts are common, volcanoes and destructive earthquakes are a result from Mexico’s location on the Ring of Fire (CIA, 2019).

Land Degradation: The agricultural sector plays a crucial role in Mexican economy, employing 13% of the working population. Due to the lack of consideration of ecosystem services and their value in development programs and agricultural models, Mexico's agriculture has been, and is causing massive damages to the environment, resulting in a loss of 35% of forest and jungle areas over the past 20 years, with 81% of this loss being directly linked to harmful agricultural practices. Subsidy policies, ignorant of environmental issues, have led to a massive increase in degraded soils throughout the country (45% of Mexico’s land is severely or very severely degrade) and an accelerating loss of biodiversity. The current cost for depletion and degradation of natural resources in Mexico is estimated to amount to 5.7% of the GDP, with a rising tendency if action is not taken immediately.  

ELD ACTIVITIES

  • Case Study (2022)

    Title: La Economía de la Producción de Mezcal en Oaxaca, México. El camino hacia la producción sostenible de agave
    Content: The report in Oaxaca, Mexico performs an economic valuation of the ecosystem services related to agave production for mezcal, evaluating the economic potential of applying a sustainability strategy to agave-mezcal production. The objective is to enable decision-makers to create the conditions for translating this economic potential into real wealth, so as to benefit the producers and actors in the value chain, achieve food security and mitigate the effects of climate change. The study was conducted in cooperation with the GIZ project "Mainstreaming of biodiversity within Mexican agriculture" (GIZ IKI-IBA project) and local partners. 

     

     

CONTACT

ELD Secretariat
E-Mail: info@eld-initiative.org