Document: REN-3-82-16

Monitoring and evaluation of natural protected areas in Mexico.

GONZALEZ-MONTAGUT, R.*

Mexican Nature Conservation Fund, Mexico City 03900 Mexico ¹

Abstract:
Mexico has established an initial system to monitor and evaluate the impact on conservation and sustainable use of natural protected areas in a program that includes ten priority reserves. At the program level, the monitoring and evaluation system allows to keep decision-makers informed on progress and needs of the program. At the reserve level, this system provides continuous feedback to reserve managers to allow for adaptive management. At the program level four indicators measure impact of conservation and sustainable use activities: Reduction or maintenance of natural habitat conversion rates, maintenance of the frequency of observation of indicator species, maintenance or increase in the number of people involved in conservation and sustainable use activities, and maintenance or increase in the proportion of area under sustainable use over the surface area under destructive land use. The baseline data (1980 to 1996) indicated that rates of natural habitat conversion in the ten reserves range between 0 and 1.45% per year. Each reserve selected between five and ten indicator species and established the frequency of observation per species per year. A total of 38,434 people were reported to be involved in conservation and sustainable use activities in the ten reserves, and 834,717 ha were registered as being transformed from destructive to sustainable land use practices. At the reserve level, the personnel of each natural protected area have identified the major threats to the conservation and sustainable use of the reserve natural resources.

Keywords: natural protected areas, monitoring, evaluation, indicators

This abstract is being presented at: 9:00 AM in session:
Oral Session #59: Plant Communities: Vegetative Analysis.