The Petén–Veracruz moist forests is an
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...
of the
tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Description
TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...
biome
A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...
found in
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern 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 wate ...
,
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
, and
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
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 ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
state across portions of the Mexican states of
Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
,
Tabasco
Tabasco (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco), is one of the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa.
It is located in ...
,
Chiapas
Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...
, and
Campeche
Campeche (; yua, Kaampech ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Campeche), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by ...
, as well as northern
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
and most of
Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern 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 wate ...
. It includes the
Lacandon Forest
The Lacandon Jungle ( Spanish: ''Selva Lacandona'') is an area of rainforest which stretches from Chiapas, Mexico, into Guatemala. The heart of this rainforest is located in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas near the border with Guat ...
of Chiapas and the
Petén Basin
The Petén Basin is a geographical subregion of Mesoamerica, primarily located in northern Guatemala within the Department of El Petén, and into Campeche state in southeastern Mexico.
During the Late Preclassic and Classic periods of pre-Columb ...
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''
* El Blanco, albin ...
,
Papaloapan,
Coatzacoalcos
Coatzacoalcos () 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 Campeche, on the southern Gulf of Mexico coast. The city serves as the munic ...
,
Tonalá,
Grijalva,
Usumacinta
The Usumacinta River (; named after the howler monkey) is a river in southeastern Mexico and northwestern Guatemala. It is formed by the junction of the Pasión River, which arises in the Sierra de Santa Cruz (in Guatemala) and the Salinas ...
, and
Hondo
Hondo may refer to:
Places
* Rio Hondo (disambiguation), the name of several locations, derived from the Spanish word for "deep"
Canada
* Hondo, Alberta, an unincorporated community
United States
* Hondo, New Mexico, an unincorporated co ...
.
;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 southern 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 southeas ...
,
Sierra Madre de Chiapas
The Sierra Madre de Chiapas is a major mountain range in Central America. It crosses El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras. The Sierra Madre de Chiapas is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges that consists of an almos ...
,
Chiapas Plateau, and
Guatemalan Highlands
The Guatemalan Highlands is an upland region in southern Guatemala, lying between the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south and the Petén lowlands to the north.
Description
The highlands are made up of a series of high valleys enclosed by mou ...
, where the lowland Petén–Veracruz forests yield to montane moist forests and pine–oak forests. In central Veracruz, the
Veracruz dry forests
The Veracruz dry forests are a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion located in central Veracruz, Mexico. They cover an area of . The dry climate is a result of the rain shadow created by the Sierra de Chiconquiaco. The fores ...
separate the Petén–Veracruz moist forests from the
Veracruz moist forests
The Veracruz moist forests ( es, Bosques húmedos de Veracruz) 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 ...
further north. The western portion of the ecoregion mostly extends to the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
, 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 coast in Eastern Mexico. The Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve (Biósfera Los Tuxtlas) includes the coastal and higher elevations ...
and the flooded forests and wetlands of the
Pantanos de Centla
The Pantanos de Centla (Centla swamps) are wooded wetlands along the coast in state of Tabasco in Mexico. They have been protected since 2006 with the establishment of the Pantanos de Centla Biosphere Reserve. It is also a World Wildlife Fund ...
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 (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...
. The Petén–Veracruz moist forests extend east to the
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...
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-2 ...
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 () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that t ...
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 Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
peoples inhabit the western portion.
Conservation
22% of the ecoregion is in protected areas.
These include the
Maya Biosphere Reserve
The Maya Biosphere Reserve ( es, Reserva de la Biosfera Maya) 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 c ...
in Guatemala, and the
Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve
Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve is a protected natural area in Chiapas state of southern Mexico. The reserve protects 3312 km2 of the Lacandon Jungle, a lowland tropical rainforest.
Geography
Montes Azules Biosphere reserve adjoins Lacan-Tun B ...
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 archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Co ...
,
El Rosario,
Guanacaste,
Monkey Bay
Main north-south street of the town.
Monkey Bay or Lusumbwe is a town in Mangochi which is in the Mangochi District in the Southern Region of Malawi. The town is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The popul ...
,
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. Its highest points are located near the Mexican border at coordina ...
,
Cañón del Sumidero,
Cañón del Río Blanco, and
Palenque
Palenque (; Yucatec Maya language, Yucatec Maya: ), also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamhaʼ ("Big Water or Big Waters"), was a Maya city City-state, state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins dat ...
national parks,
Calakmul
Calakmul (; also Kalakmul and other less frequent variants) is a 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 was one of the large ...
,
Nahá–Metzabok, and
Selva El Ocote biosphere reserves,
Bladen Nature Reserve
Bladen Nature Reserve is a landscape of caves, sinkholes, pristine streams and rivers, undisturbed old growth rainforest and an abundance of highly diverse flora and fauna which includes a great deal of rare and endemic species.
Widely described ...
, and
Cañón del Usumacinta
Cañón del Usumacinta is a protected natural area in southern Mexico.
It protects part of the Usumacinta Canyon, where the Usumacinta River winds northwards in a narrow gorge which cuts through parallel ridges. It is located in the state of T ...
,
Cascada de Agua Azul, and
Chan-Kin flora and fauna protection areas.
[
]
See also
*List of ecoregions in Guatemala
This is a list of ecoregions of Guatemala as defined by the World Wildlife Fund and the Freshwater Ecoregions of the World database.
Terrestrial ecoregions Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
* Central American Atlantic moist forests ...
*List of ecoregions in Mexico
The following is a list of ecoregions in Mexico as identified by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). A different system of ecoregional analysis is used by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a trilateral body linking Mexican, Canadian ...
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