Cheri Sugal, defender of a Mexican rainforest, answers Grist's questions | Grist | InterActivist

Questions from Grist editors | Questions from readers

Protecting vast reaches of contiguous habitat is a major issue in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana for grizzly and wolf populations. Is it as critical for protecting jaguars? What's your strategy for securing intact or contiguous habitat? -- Toni Rubin, Portland, Ore.

Cheri Sugal, Friends of Calakmul.

Right now, Friends of Calakmul is focused entirely on securing large blocks of contiguous forest west of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Just to give you an idea of how important this area is for jaguars, the population in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (roughly 500) is the second-largest single population north of the Amazon. We are focused on protecting the remaining large contiguous blocks because every jaguar needs almost six square miles (roughly 3,700 acres) for its survival; in fact, studies in the area have shown the probability of jaguar extinction in Calakmul will increase by 40 percent if the forests where FOC is working are not protected.

The jaguar needs such a large range because it needs a great abundance of prey. FOC's partner, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has been studying the ecology of jaguars in Calakmul for nine years. Their findings indicate that one jaguar lives and forages a small area of its home range for seven to 10 days. After that, the jaguar moves to another small area where it has an abundance of new prey. This rotation continues until it visits the entire home range. These findings indicate why it is critical to preserve large intact blocks of forest.

Regarding connectivity, our NGO partner, Unidos para Conservación, has been developing a strategy that outlines a conservation corridor from the eastern side of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve to the Sian Kaan reserve on the east coast of the Yucatan. This part of the reserve is much more fragmented than the area where we are currently working. However, it is still critically important for the survival of jaguars in the region. Once we have consolidated the large blocks to the west of the reserve, we plan to help implement a strategy to connect the two reserves, utilizing in some cases the tools we have used with the ejidos, or long-term conservation contracts, to the west of the reserve.

I recently read that jaguars have been spotted in New Mexico near the border with Mexico. Is your organization doing any work to protect these crossings and to encourage their return? -- Ann Stein, Ojai, Calif.

This was exciting news to hear about. Currently, Friends of Calakmul only works to protect jaguar habitat in the Yucatan Peninsula, but there are a number of groups who are committed to protecting northern Mexico and cross-border jaguar populations. Check out the Malpai Borderlands Group and the Northern Jaguar Project, two organizations based in the U.S., for more information on what's being done.

Also, the Center for Biological Diversity in New Mexico filed an intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after it announced in July that it would not declare parts of New Mexico and Arizona critical habitat for jaguars, and for failing to develop and implement a recovery plan for the jaguar.

Story continues below

ADVERTISING POLICY

Could you address the challenges presented by high rates of population growth in the Calakmul Reserve, from both migration from conflict and hardship in Chiapas and from higher-than-national-average growth rates of populations living in and around the reserve? Can you address if and how your organization's efforts or others in the region are pursuing these types of integrated efforts? -- Geoff Dabelko, Washington, D.C.

The area we are currently working to protect is very remote; in fact, the ejidos that own these large forest blocks live some 155 miles away. The remoteness of these forest blocks has meant that population growth in the region has not yet posed a real threat to the areas that we are protecting. In addition, because the forest blocks are inside the reserve, ejidos have not been able to convert this land for other uses (this problem exists mainly on the east side of the reserve). Poverty, however, and the need for ejidos to earn income from these lands has been a threat and, until we started negotiating long-term conservation leases, ejidos had virtually no alternative to logging for generating income from their land.

What can we do to help with the bushmeat trade problem? Which species are affected the most? -- Chris Bond, Moore, S.C.

The bushmeat trade is devastating to wildlife throughout Asia and Africa and is an extremely complicated problem. The best source of information is the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force.

Unfortunately, the list of species that the bushmeat trade affects would be too long to reprint here. Duikers (forest antelopes) are most heavily hunted, and throughout central Africa, typically supply 40 to 80 percent of the meat in bushmeat markets. It is important to note that because duikers are a prey species, their loss can also result in the loss of predator species such as the leopard and golden cat. Of huge concern to the conservation community are the effects of the bushmeat trade on great-ape populations. In west and central Africa, primates as a group may constitute up to 15 percent of total carcasses found in bushmeat markets. The African great apes (bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas) make up only about 1 percent of the total carcasses in the bushmeat trade, but these populations cannot withstand this pressure.

I've read recently that the rainforests seem to be the engine of evolution, creating more species than any other environment. Shouldn't you be applauding global warming because it means that the rainforests will be expanding up the temperate zones? In fact, aren't the current temperate zones bio-bereft, and wouldn't they benefit from more heat? -- John Bailo, Kent, Wash.

It is true that rainforests harbor the vast majority of biodiversity on earth. However, scientists agree that as temperatures rise, biodiversity will continue to decline (not increase), even in cooler climates. The most devastating example of this is the recent inclusion of polar bears on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.

However, the effects of climate change on biodiversity are far-reaching and operate at many different levels -- from individuals to ecosystems. At the species level, climate change may alter their distribution, abundance, behavior, phenology (the timing of events such as migration or breeding), morphology (size and shape), and genetic composition. Many such effects have already been documented in a wide range of species, and birds provide some of the clearest examples. In addition, climate change has many indirect negative effects including creating conditions suitable for new invasive pathogens that are already having devastating impacts on biodiversity.

In the Arctic region of Alaska, Native American groups have lately been working together toward the preservation of regions in which the animals that they need and love may live. For these people, the issues involved, regarding the welfare of the wildlife of Alaska, are practical, traditional, and spiritual, all intermixed. Is there anything analogous going on among the various Maya groups of Yucatan and Chiapas and Guatemala? -- Marcus Stephanus, New York, N.Y.

As you may know, the archeological sites of Calakmul are the remains of a system of large Mayan cities built between the years B.C. 500 and A.D. 900, and are a very important part of Mexico's cultural legacy. The Mayans certainly had a strong spiritual connection to the land. However, in order to understand how this translates into current local perspectives on conservation, it is important to understand that the people living in this region are not the original Mayans that occupied the Yucatan Peninsula.

The large urban and industrial Mayan centers of the Calakmul region were abandoned in A.D. 900. At the end of the 19th century, most of the region was devastated by eight large American timber companies that had concessions to more than one million hectares (some 2.5 million acres). Following the 1910 Mexican Revolution, these large forest concessions were redistributed to ejidos. A strong immigration into the Calakmul region started in the 1970s, coming from at least 23 states of Mexico. The new inhabitants are a heterogeneous population -- frequently displaced by social conflicts in their native lands -- who came to colonize the forest of the region. A large portion of the population belongs to the Mayan, Chol, and Tzeltal ethnic groups from the state of Chiapas, and to the Yucatec Mayan group of the states of Campeche and Yucatan. Original aboriginal inhabitants -- the Yucatec Mayan people -- live in about 10 out of the 72 communities that exist around the Reserve of Calakmul. For these reasons, the people of the Calakmul region do not generally maintain the same spiritual connections to the land as the original Mayans.

I am really interested in your newest venture, the "Gaia Restoration Project." Do you have any more information on this program? -- Rachel Webb, Cleveland, Ohio

I am developing this program as a collaborative effort between a school that I founded called Gaia-San Francisco and Babes in the Backcountry, founded by skiing champion Leslie Ross. We are creating this program because we strongly believe that profound transformation of individual consciousness and connection to core essence leads to profound transformation in the world. We plan to create powerful gatherings in remote and inspiring locations, led by backcountry experts as well as spiritual leaders, utilizing many indigenous teachings.

In Ecuador, there is a small biopark called Reserva Fatima. This park is run by one biologist (a native) who set it up to help teach the local people how they could farm the local flora and fauna instead of using slash-and-burn for cattle and "conventional" crops. Do you see this as a viable option for saving our ecosystems? -- Tim Hammond, Decorah, Iowa

I do not know about this park specifically, but you should be able to find more information about them through another group working on biodiversity conservation throughout Ecuador. Yes, economic incentives that provide an alternative to land conversion (as we are doing in Calakmul) are a good idea. There are many projects around the world where the "farming" or extraction of non-timber forest products has provided a viable alternative to land conversion. It is important to look at both the overall impacts of such projects on biodiversity as well as any perverse economic incentives created by the project.

I am soon to be a college graduate with a B.S. in environmental studies. Do you have any advice as to how to go about getting involved with environmental NGOs, having no real prior experience? -- Marlee Forsthoffer, Davie, Fla.

There are many opportunities to work with environmental NGOs that will allow you to gain experience and further develop your career. I recommend searching the internet for job listings and following up with a request for an informational interview. You might also consider volunteering for an environmental nonprofit organization, as I know many people who have started their careers this way. You can find volunteer opportunities at VolunteerMatch.

Can you list places to stay for several nights while visiting the Calakmul reserve? -- Lucy Duncan, Gulf Breeze, Fla.

Visit the tourism section of our website to see some of our best recommendations for getting to the reserve and some of the lodging options available nearby. Have a great trip.

Questions from Grist editors | Questions from readers

That's What Friends Are For

Cheri Sugal, defender of a Mexican rainforest, answers readers' questions