Wasted Capacity of Mexican Ejidos and Agrarian Communities to Mitigate Climate Change

Jesús Carlos Morett-Sánchez

Author’s Contact Details: Email addresses ✉: jcmoretts@chapingo.mx; jcmorett@hotmail.com; Phone no ☎: +52 3333779143

Accepted December 19, 2020

Climate change and the consequent global warming represent one of the greatest environmental threats on a planetary scale. Conservation of forest areas and their sustainable use are imperative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are the main cause of the increase in the average temperature of the earth. In Mexico, forest ecosystems: forests, tropical rainforests and other areas with natural vegetation cover 70.5% of their surface, but 121 thousand hectares are deforested annually, so that at that rate by mid-century many forests and jungles will disappear. The ejidos and agrarian communities, a mode of land ownership only exists in Mexico, cover just over half of its territory and on its soils most of the wildlife, forest resources and hydrographic basins of the nation are located. So, it is essential to stop deterioration of these forests, to allow generating extensive environmental services. The vast majority of ejidos and agrarian communities have not had the resources to adequately take advantage of their wooded areas, when there is great potential to provide them with economic benefits, generate employment and, simultaneously, provide environmental services. The only thing that is required is government support so that they can make a sustainable use of them.

Key words: Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Change, Ejidos and Agrarian Communities, Environmental Service.

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