Mexico has in its territory several green areas where we can reconnect with nature, enjoy the pure air and the tranquility that separating from daily activities means.
Below you will find an important sample of other natural sites that, due to their beauty, can also be travel options. Ecotourism in these areas must be responsible and well-organized tourism, for this we have included on page 64 of this guide, the addresses and telephone numbers of some of them so that you know the conditions of visit, as well as the description of each one of the categories decreed to these natural areas protected by Semarnap so that you are familiar with the terms.
Biosphere reserves are relevant biographical areas at the national level, of one or more ecosystems, not significantly altered by man and in which species representative of biodiversity inhabit, including those considered endemic, threatened or in danger of extinction and that they require to be preserved or restored.
Lagoon of Terms
This lagoon in the state of Campeche is considered the largest estuary system in the country, as it forms a wetland complex made up of the continental marine platform and extensive coastal floodplains.
Estuaries cover large areas starting from the coast, the bottom of which presents underwater flora, and a surface covered by dense mangroves and associations of emergent plants, such as popal, reedbed and tular; where the land is firm, low and medium jungle develops.
The main lagoon is separated from the sea by Isla del Carmen and communicated by the mouths of Carmen and Puerto Real, which form a delta surrounded by the interior of the lagoon and the contribution of several rivers. This place has been decreed as a Flora and Fauna Protection Area.
Cuatrocienegas
In the center of the state of Coahuila is the extensive Cuatrociénegas valley; These are flat lands in which there are about 200 pools and springs that emerge from the limestone soil, and that have different sizes and intense colors, such as that of the Blue Pool.
In the vicinity of the Torreón-Monclova highway it is possible to admire a small lagoon, surrounded by a strange system of dunes of fine white sand. This area allows the coexistence of more than fifty species of fish, shrimp, turtles and cacti unique in the world, which have evolved according to the conditions of this semi-arid environment, isolated by a wide mountain system. Currently, Cuatrociénegas has the category of Flora and Fauna Protection Area.
Jungle of Ocote
This Chiapas biosphere reserve is part of a region included in the Grijalva river basin, its topography is abrupt and has several important tributaries due to its flow, such as the Cintalpa, Encajonada or Negro and La Venta rivers; On the high walls of the latter, it is possible to admire cavities and caves such as those of El Tigre and El Monstruo, with Mayan vestiges, and rare limestone rock formations caused by waterfalls.
The area has vegetation of high humid tropical forest and low evergreen forest, both well preserved, mainly due to the topography. Its altitude gradient varies from 200 meters above sea level in canyons such as La Venta, to 1,500 meters above sea level at the high peak of the Sierra de Monterrey.
The crossroads
This biosphere reserve occupies a wide coastal strip of the Pacific, in the southwest of Chiapas, in which mangroves, canals and lands that are flooded almost all year are abundant. The area has several types of coastal vegetation, which is why it is considered the most important wetland system on the American Pacific coast.
Due to its extension, plant structure of mangroves, reeds, tulars, low and medium forests, and due to the great biological productivity of its lagoon systems, it is a strategic area of humidity that functions as a habitat for aquatic and marine birds. The flooded mangroves and zapotonales are of equal importance, giving rise to high altitude forests, where the tallest mangroves in the northern hemisphere stand out.
The triumph
This biosphere reserve contains the last mesophilic mountain forest ecosystems inhabited by the majestic quetzal, and other birds such as the pazón, the toucan and hundreds of more animals from the Lacandon jungle; The area also has vegetation of medium evergreen forest, low deciduous forest and oak, sweetgum and pine forests.
It has a rugged relief and a steep elevation that varies from 200 to 2,000 meters above sea level, where it exists in a dozen microclimates, with a predominance of temperate and warm subhumid, and with abundant rainfall that creates streams of little flow and fast current that they contribute water to two regional hydrological systems and to the coastal plain of Chiapas.
Blue Mountains
In the heart of the Lacandon Jungle is the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, with lush vegetation of high evergreen jungle, where there are more than a dozen large rivers and streams. This biosphere reserve protects the most extensive tropical rain forests in the country, considered among the last forest strongholds that cover part of the states of Campeche and Quintana Roo, and the borders with Guatemala and Belize.
Here it is still possible to contemplate huge trees that reach heights of more than 50 m, where the howler and spider monkeys find food and protection, as well as hundreds of multicolored birds; the dense vegetation cover also abounds with the large mammals of America; and numerous archaeological remains of the Mayan culture are included.
The burial
The biosphere reserve occupies privately owned, ejidal and communal lands, and national lands, the majority of which are part of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. The area has high biological diversity, while its middle and upper portions function as an important water catchment and supply center for the entire coastal region and the central west of the state.
The main ecosystems are formed by low deciduous forest and tropical rain forest, mountain mesophilic forest and mist chaparral, on whose trunks epiphytic plants abound, such as cacti, bromeliads, orchids, ferns and mosses, which give a dense and leafy appearance to the vegetation.
Santa Elena Canyon
In the extreme north of the Chihuahuan desert, the immense rocky walls - eroded during centuries - have originated this area of protection of flora and fauna, which presents wide plains inhabited by the vegetal species that characterize the Mexican semi-desert; The ocotillo, mesquite and huizache bushes stand out, which in spring and summer offer hints of red and yellow colors, together with the spiky inflorescences of the lettuce plants, surrounded by herbaceous and smaller grasslands. In the higher lands, small portions of oak and pine vegetation have developed, where the largest populations of large mammals are recorded.
