Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Oaxaca, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlan, Oaxaca, México.
Instituto de Estudios Ambientales, Universidad de la Sierra Juárez, Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca, México.
PeerJ. 2023 Nov 7;11:e16345. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16345. eCollection 2023.
Southern Mexico's tropical forests are home to the country's highest richness of mammal species; La Chinantla region is situated within this area, its name from the indigenous group residing in the area and holding territorial ownership, namely the Chinantecos. In La Chinantla, there are no Protected Areas; instead, there are Areas Destined Voluntarily for Conservation (ADVC) and "Voluntary Conservation Areas" (VCA), that are managed by local inhabitants through social consensus. These ADVC may function as an archipelago reserve, which represents regional diversity, including the social context, through complementarity. To verify its biodiversity, we analyzed the richness, composition, distribution, and conservation of wild mammals in the region. Records were obtained from four sources-primary data collection, databases, scientific literature, and community monitoring-and were organized into four zones based on altitudinal and vegetation gradients. We compared the diversity between zones for three categories of mammals: small (<100 gr.), bats, and medium and large (>100 gr.). 134 species were identified comprising 11 orders, 26 families and 86 genera. The zone with highest elevation presented the greatest species richness for the assemblage of mammals and terrestrial mammals, while the zone with the lowest elevation had the highest richness of bats. For each mammal category, the zone with the most species also registered the highest number of exclusive species. For the assemblage of mammals and for medium and large mammals, the similarity index was highest between the two intermediate zones, while for small mammals and bats, the greatest similarity occurred between the areas of higher altitude. The study region was found to have the second highest richness of mammals in Mexico. Finally, we suggest that the conservation proposals by indigenous people could function as a set of "islands" that promote the conservation of biodiversity, possibly as an Archipelago Reserve.
墨西哥南部的热带雨林是该国哺乳动物物种最丰富的地区；拉钦塔腊地区位于该地区，其名称来自居住在该地区并拥有领土所有权的土著群体，即恰安特克人。在拉钦塔腊，没有保护区；相反，有自愿保护区 (ADVC) 和“自愿保护区”(VCA)，由当地居民通过社会共识进行管理。这些 ADVC 可以作为群岛保护区，通过互补性代表区域多样性，包括社会背景。为了验证其生物多样性，我们分析了该地区野生动物哺乳动物的丰富度、组成、分布和保护情况。记录来自四个来源——主要数据收集、数据库、科学文献和社区监测，并根据海拔和植被梯度分为四个区。我们比较了三个类别的哺乳动物（<100 克）、蝙蝠和中大型哺乳动物（>100 克）在不同区域之间的多样性。共确定了 134 种，包括 11 个目、26 个科和 86 个属。海拔最高的区域拥有最多的哺乳动物和陆地哺乳动物种类，而海拔最低的区域则拥有最多的蝙蝠种类。对于每一种哺乳动物类别，物种最多的区域也记录了最多的特有物种。对于哺乳动物组合和中大型哺乳动物，两个中间区域之间的相似性指数最高，而对于小型哺乳动物和蝙蝠，高海拔区域之间的相似性最高。研究区域被发现是墨西哥哺乳动物第二丰富的地区。最后，我们建议土著人民的保护建议可以作为一组“岛屿”，促进生物多样性的保护，可能作为一个群岛保护区。
