Mexican Dry & Coniferous Forests bioregion

The bioregion’s land area is provided in units of 1,000 hectares. The conservation target is the combined Global Safety Net (GSN1) areas for the component ecoregions. The protection level indicates the percentage of the GSN goal that is currently protected on a scale of 0-10. N/A means data is not available at this time.

  • 44,945
    Total Land Area (1000 ha)
  • 14
    Number of Ecoregions
  • 32%
    Protection Target
  • 3
    Protection Level

The Mexican Dry & Coniferous bioregion, located in the Central America (Neotropical) realm, starts at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and includes most of the western Sierra Madre mountain range, running the entire length of Mexico’s Pacific coast. It consists entirely of tropical and subtropical dry forests and the pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madres. The bioregion contains 13 terrestrial ecoregions – Oaxacan Montane Forests (487), Bajío Dry Forests (521), Balsas Dry Forests (522), Jalisco Dry Forests (534), Sierra de la Laguna Dry Forests (544), Sinaloan Dry Forests (545), Southern Pacific Dry Forests (547), Sierra de la Laguna Pine-Oak Forests (556), Sierra Madre De Oaxaca Pine-Oak Forests (557), Sierra Madre Del Sur Pine-Oak Forests (558), Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Pine-Oak Forests (559), San Lucan Xeric Scrub (607), Tehuacán Valley Matorral (610) – along with Northern Mesoamerican Pacific Mangroves (614). The total area of this bioregion is approximately 44 million hectares, not including adjacent marine areas.

The Mexican Dry & Coniferous Forests bioregion is part of the Central America subrealm and is made up of 14 ecoregions: (1) San Lucan Xeric Scrub (2) Sierra de la Laguna Pine-Oak Forests (3) Sierra de la Laguna Dry Forests (4) Sinaloan Dry Forests (5) Northern Mesoamerican Pacific Mangroves (6) Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Pine-Oak Forests (7) Jalisco Dry Forests (8) Bajío Dry Forests (9) Balsas Dry Forests (10) Sierra Madre Del Sur Pine-Oak Forests (11) Tehuacán Valley Matorral (12) Oaxacan Montane Forests (13) Sierra Madre De Oaxaca Pine-Oak Forests (14) Southern Pacific Dry Forests.

One Earth is dedicated to mobilizing philanthropic capital to protect the ecosystems and peoples of Central America. Visit the Project Marketplace to explore projects in this realm that need your support. Learn more about each of the Mexican Dry & Coniferous Forests ecoregions below.

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