Conservation of Ceratozamia in Mexico 953


TABLE 1 The area where each species is predicted to be present, area transformed to anthropogenic landscapes, whether the area is considered a biocultural priority region (Boege, 2008), and conservation strategies for Ceratozamia species in the Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico.


Species C. brevifrons


C. chamberlainii C. decumbens C. delucana


C. fuscoviridis C. hildae


C. kuesteriana C. latifolia


C. mexicana C. morettii C. sabatoi


C. tenuis


C. totonacorum C. zaragozae


Predicted area (km2)


817


3,604 1,084 1,642 6,674 6,631


19,599 8,148


737 782


1,447 258 4,345


Transformed habitat (km2)


558


2,762 836


1,118 3,593 2,206 8,748 2,729


647 535 524


203 1,073


Biocultural priority region Conservation category


No Yes


Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes


No No Yes


No Yes


Not available Not available No Ex situ: botanical garden


Ex situ: botanical garden In situ: Biosphere Reserve Sierra Gorda


Ex situ: botanical garden In situ: State Reserve Metlac-Río Blanco


Ex situ: botanical garden In situ: State Reserve Río Filolobos & surroundings


Ex situ: botanical garden In situ: Los Mármoles National Park


Ex situ: botanical garden In situ: Biosphere Reserve Sierra Gorda


Ex situ: botanical garden In situ: Biosphere Reserve El Cielo Ex situ: botanical garden Ex situ: botanical garden Ex situ: botanical garden


Ex situ: botanical garden In situ: Biosphere Reserve Sierra Gorda, Los Mármoles National Park


Ex situ: botanical garden, nursery Tlachinola (inactive), nursery Dos Cerros (closed)


In situ: hydrological basin of River Necaxa


Ex situ: botanical garden In situ: El Potosí National Park


endemic species. In situ conservation actions are required to mitigate the loss of diversity in these cloud forests, which comprise highly diverse and productive ecosystems inMexico (Gual-Díaz & González-Medrano, 2014). Ex situ conservation initiatives have dominated the


preservation of cycads in Mexico, with botanic gardens play- ing an important role (Griffith et al., 2015). However, species that occur in a narrow geographical area, and/or are strictly dioecious, tend to have reduced ranges and populations when their habitats are fragmented by human activities. This leaves them more vulnerable to extinction than spe- cies with a broader distribution. Conserving Ceratozamia species and other cycad genera such as Dioon and Zamia requires improved conservation strategies and careful selec- tion of the best strategy depending on the characteristics of the species and the area in which it occurs.


Improving conservation strategies through multidisciplinary approaches


The best preserved areas for Ceratozamia in the Sierra Madre Oriental, which potentially include the highest num- ber of cycad species (except the range of C. decumbens; Fig. 3), correspond with priority biocultural regions. These are territories with long-term occupation by Indigenous peoples and peasant communities of Mesoamerican origin,


and are characterized by high levels of biological, agrobio- logical and cultural diversity (Boege, 2008). The fact that these areas harbour a large number of Ceratozamia species could be a result of the past activities of diverse Meso- american peoples,who havemanaged natural resourceswith- out destroying or severely damaging the forest (Toledo et al., 2003). Our findings suggest that, in addition to considering the biology of the target taxa, successful conservation and management of threatened species must enable active and direct participation of local communities. This community engagement should not be limited to the provision of eco- nomic benefits during the implementation of conservation projects, but should start during the planning phase, to avoid negative perceptions of, and attitudes towards, con- servation and management strategies. We detected a series of conflicts in the nurseries studied,


such as a lack of dialogue between members of the com- munity and researchers, discontent and distrust within the community, difficulty selling the plants, and organiza- tional problems (lack of agreements). In both nurseries, Thachinola and Dos Cerros, members of local communities were considered as employees, rather than principal parti- cipants. The nature of these conflicts could vary regionally because of diverse factors (e.g. social values, socio-economic status). Our work could serve as a starting point for a com- prehensive analysis of nurseries management. Development


Oryx, 2021, 55(6), 947–956 © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605320000204


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