Resumo

GARCIA-GIL, Gerardo et al. Change of land use in the Zone Subject to Ecological Conservation Cuxtal Reserve, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Invest. Geog [online]. 2020, n.101, e59895.  Epub 02-Out-2020. ISSN 2448-7279.  https://doi.org/10.14350/rig.59895.

Conservation areas are surfaces that play an indispensable role for the human population by virtue of the multiple environmental and ecosystem services that benefit people and have a direct impact on long-term social, economic and environmental well-being. While conservation areas may or may not represent protected areas, a strategy that has been followed for their protection has been the decree of protected natural areas. This article analyzes the change in land use during the last 20 years that occurred in the Zone Subject to Ecological Conservation Cuxtal Reserve, located to the South of the city of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. In 1993, the Reserve was decreed as a protected natural area of municipal competence with an extension of 10,757 hectares. However, it was until 2004 that it had a management program which was modified and updated in its entirety after 14 years in 2018. The Reserve, due to its location in the urban periphery of Mérida, faces constant pressure from the date of its creation due to real estate speculation and land use change caused by the expansion of the urban area and, to a lesser extent, by the natural growth of the eight population centers within the Reserve. The phenomenon of loss of forest cover and change of land use within the Reserve occurs mainly due to the lack of proper management and the lack of compliance with current regulations, which is expressed in the loss of conservation areas that the Reserve must protect. In this work, a temporary analysis is carried out to know the changes that the coverage occupied by the low deciduous forest, the herbaceous, shrub and tree secondary vegetation during the period from 1995 to 2015 has undergone. The temporal analysis included the manual interpretation of vegetation types and land use from aerial photos of 1995, 2005 INEGI orthophotos and SENTINEL 2015 satellite image. A digital geographic base was generated that was processed in the QGIS 2.18® and ARCGIS 10.6® programs, from which maps of the South of the municipality of Mérida and the Cuxtal Reserve were obtained. For each of the dates analyzed, the calculation of surfaces of the categories considered was performed and rates of change of vegetation and land use were obtained. The Reserve has lost vegetation cover due to urban expansion and irregularities in civil construction and housing developments. In 20 years, the low forest went from occupying 73.4% of the protected area to 43.9%, which means a loss of forest cover of 3,180.8 hectares. Urban expansion, infrastructure and services registered the largest increase within the Reserve, as it increased from 723.0 hectares in 1995 to 1,864.1 hectares in 2015, representing a growth of 1,141.1 hectares. The area occupied by secondary or recovering vegetation and to a lesser extent agricultural use and perennial crops increased from 2,142.8 hectares to 4,224.7 hectares, which means an increase of 2,081.9 hectares. In the period 1995 to 2005, the forest area of the Reserve decreased, since a loss of 1,566.3 hectares of low deciduous forest and secondary tree vegetation was estimated. From 2005 to 2015, 840.6 hectares were deforested. Housing use in the first period increased by 347.7 hectares and in the second the increase was 1,141.1 hectares. It is clear that the Reserve has not had due compliance with current regulations as it has not been possible to meet the proposed conservation objectives for the protected natural area. There are still vegetation relics that add 3,000 hectares of deciduous forest that have changed to vegetation in a state of recovery of less than 10 years. It is necessary that urban public policies and instruments for regulating land use recognize that the Cuxtal Reserve is the most important water source for the metropolitan area of Mérida, which has a vegetation cover that contributes to the conservation of regional biodiversity and includes populations in vulnerable situations. It is essential to carry out the timely monitoring of the Reserve’s management program, generate sustainable productive alternatives for local residents, as well as to have greater efficiency and effectiveness in the regulation of the land use of the Cuxtal Reserve and areas of influence.

Palavras-chave : Conservation area; protected natural area; urban expansion; forest cover; law enforcement.

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