The Petén–Veracruz moist forests is an

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest

biome A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...

found in

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

, and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Setting

The Petén–Veracruz moist forests cover an area of , extending from central

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

state across portions of the Mexican states of

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

Tabasco Tabasco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Tabasco, 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa. It i ...

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

, and

Campeche Campeche, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche, is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, make up the Administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the sta ...

, as well as northern

and most of

. It includes the Lacandon Forest of Chiapas and the

Petén Basin The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of the Maya Lowlands, primarily located in northern Guatemala within the Department of El Petén, and into the state of Campeche in southeastern Mexico. During the Late Preclassic and Classic periods ...

of Guatemala. The Petén–Veracruz moist forests mostly occupy a coastal lowland with meandering rivers, including the

Blanco Blanco (''white'' or ''blank'' in Spanish) or Los Blancos may refer to: People *Blanco (surname) Fictional characters *Blanco, a hobbit in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth *Blanco Webb, character in the BBC sitcom ''Porridge'' *Graboid#El Blanco, ...

Papaloapan The Papaloapan River () is one of the main rivers of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Its name comes from the Nahuatl ''papaloapan'' meaning "river of the butterflies". In 1518 Juan de Grijalva's expedition spotted the river, naming it Río de Alvar ...

Coatzacoalcos Coatzacoalcos (; formerly known as Puerto México; ; Zapotec: ; Popoluca: ''Puertu'') is a major port city in the southern part of the Mexican state of Veracruz, mostly on the western side of the Coatzacoalcos River estuary, on the Bay of Ca ...

, Tonalá, Grijalva, Usumacinta, and Hondo. ;Adjacent ecoregions The ecoregion is bounded on the south by a series of mountain ranges and highlands, including the

Sierra Madre de Oaxaca The Sierra Madre de Oaxaca is a mountain range in southeastern Mexico. It is primarily in the state of Oaxaca, and extends north into the states of Puebla and Veracruz. Geography The mountain range begins at Pico de Orizaba, and extends in a sout ...

, Sierra Madre de Chiapas, Chiapas Plateau, and

Guatemalan Highlands The Guatemalan Highlands is an upland region in southern Guatemala which lies between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south and the Petén lowlands to the north. Geographic description The Highlands lie between 6360 ft and 13780 ft and are ...

, where the lowland Petén–Veracruz forests yield to montane moist forests and pine–oak forests. In central Veracruz, the Veracruz dry forests separate the Petén–Veracruz moist forests from the

Veracruz moist forests The Veracruz moist forests () is a tropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion in eastern Mexico. Geography The Veracruz moist forests cover an area of , occupying a portion of Mexico's Gulf Coastal Plain between the Sierra Madre Oriental and t ...

further north. The western portion of the ecoregion mostly extends to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, although the montane forests of the

Sierra de los Tuxtlas The Sierra de Los Tuxtlas (Tuxtlas Mountains) are a volcanic belt and mountain range along the southeastern Veracruz Gulf of Mexico, Gulf coast in Eastern Mexico. The Biósfera Los Tuxtlas, Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve (Biósfera Los Tuxtlas) in ...

and the flooded forests and wetlands of the Pantanos de Centla constitute distinct ecoregions. The eastern portion of the ecoregion is bounded on the north by the Yucatán moist forests, which extend east and west across the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

. The Petén–Veracruz moist forests extend east to the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

in Belize, surrounding enclaves of Belizian pine forests in the

Maya Mountains The Maya Mountains are a mountain range located in Belize and eastern Guatemala, in Central America. Etymology The Maya Mountains were known as the ''Cockscomb'' or ''Coxcomb Mountains'' to Baymen and later Belizeans at least until the mid ...

and near the coast. The Belizean Coast mangroves run along the Caribbean coast.

People

The northern Petén–Veracruz moist forests were home to the

Olmec The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...

culture, which built cities between 1200 and 400 BCE. The Classic Maya civilisation (250-900 CE) was centered in the eastern and southern portions of the ecoregion, known as the Selva Maya, from Tabasco and northern Chiapas across northern Guatemala to Belize. Today, modern

Mayan people Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

inhabit the eastern portion of the ecoregion, while Mixe–Zoque and

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

peoples inhabit the western portion.

Conservation

22% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. These include the

Maya Biosphere Reserve The Maya Biosphere Reserve () is a nature reserve in Guatemala managed by Guatemala's National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP). The Maya Biosphere Reserve covers an area of 21,602 km2, one-fifth of the country's total land area. The p ...

in Guatemala, and the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. Other protected areas include

Tikal Tikal (; ''Tik'al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Col ...

, El Rosario, Guanacaste, Monkey Bay, Sarstoon-Temash,

Sierra del Lacandón The Sierra del Lacandón is a low karstic mountain range in Guatemala and Mexico. It is situated in the north-west of the department of El Petén and the south-east of Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is on ...

, Cañón del Sumidero, Cañón del Río Blanco, and

Palenque Palenque (; Yucatec Maya: ), also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamha ("big water" or "big waters"), was a Maya city-state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD ...

national parks,

Calakmul Calakmul (; also Kalakmul and other less frequent variants) is a Maya civilization, Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the greater Petén Basin region. It is from the Guatemalan border. Calakmul w ...

Nahá–Metzabok Nahá–Metzabok Biosphere Reserve is a biosphere reserve in southeastern Mexico. It is located in the state of Chiapas, on the northeastern flank of the Chiapas Highlands. The reserve protects montane rain forests, pine and oak forests, and natu ...

, and Selva El Ocote biosphere reserves, Bladen Nature Reserve, and Cañón del Usumacinta, Cascada de Agua Azul, and Chan-Kin flora and fauna protection areas.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peten-Veracruz moist forests Ecoregions of Central America Ecoregions of Mexico Ecoregions of Belize Ecoregions of Guatemala Flora of Oaxaca Flora of Tabasco Flora of Chiapas Flora of Campeche * * * Petén Department Forests of Mexico Geography of Mesoamerica Neotropical tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Setting

People

Conservation

See also

References

External links