In Mexico tropical dry forests are being deforested faster than other types of forest

Between 2007 and 2011, average loss of area of TDF in Mexico was about 0.33% per year, compared to 0.2% per year for all forest types.

The primary cause of the loss of TDF forest in the study area in Jalisco was conversion to improved grass lands (seeded pastures) and scrublands (unseeded grazing areas). A much smaller proportion was converted to agriculture (shifting or permanent). Recuperation was mainly from scrubland. The largest pool of carbon in the TDF in the study area is in the soil (including both soil organic carbon and mineral carbon). In both absolute and relative terms there is more soil carbon per hectare in areas under shifting cultivation and under fallow following shifting cultivation, than in old growth forests. Soil carbon forms between 64% of the total carbon in old growth forests and 88% in the fallow areas. However, the soil carbon stocks in areas which have been opened for permanent agriculture are less than half those under shifting cultivation.

This message is one of 8 key messages from the WOTROMEX programme.  The case study area is the Ayuquila Basin in western Jalisco, which is a REDD+ Early Action Area under the Mexican national strategy for REDD+. WOTROMEX is supported by the Netherlands Science for Global Development Programme (NWO-WOTRO) and has been carried out by CIGA-UNAM together with the University of Twente, the Netherlands