Mexico
| Capital | Mexico City |  |
| Official language | Spanish | |
| Population | 107,784,200 | |
| Area | 1,972,550 km² |
General characteristics
In a very general analysis, the national territory has been divided into 16 phisiographic provinces which are units of origin, morphology and own lithology and distinctive. Among them, 8 correspond to mountain systems and 7 to valley or plains and the Balsas´s Depression, with wave relief and mountainous, that presents sedimentary deposits just in the lower parts.
56% of the land corresponds to very arid, arid and semiarid areas, in the north and center of the country. 37% is sub-humid and it is present in mountain range and in the center and south Pacific Coast, Gulf of Mexico and Yucatna peninsula. The humid areas, 7% of the territorial land, are located where the ascent to the mountain range starts.
Due to the orographic and climatic conditions in Mexico, a large floristic and vegetation diversity is found. This situation offers the possibility to observe in Mexico almost every vegetal formation described on global scale; from large land extensions without vegetation to forest with exuberant vegetation, more than 40 meters high, passing by bushes areas, different kinds of grasslands, an extensive variety of coniferous and oaks forests, palms trees, jungle, mangrove swamp, etc.
Desertification status
Land degradation is present in all the ecosystems in Mexico as a result of human activities, and it is strongly linked with the poverty conditions of the population, especially in rural environment. It is a consequence as well of the economic development which historically, has not been adequate to the environment and cultural conditions of the diverse regions of the country.
According to the National Program of Actions against Land Degradation and Mitigation of Drought Effects (2007-2030), the extension of degraded soils per state of Mexico is in average, 48.1%. Among the 31 Mexico states, 18 present a higher desertification level than the average and the other 14 present lower levels. Agricultural activities and over shepherding are the main factors which cause soil degradation, in 38.8% and 38,4% respectively, of the affected surface. Deforestation takes the third place with 16,5%, followed by urban development with 3,5%, over exploitation of vegetation for human consumption with 2,4% and industrial activities with 0,5%.
Arid and semiarid areas have an extension of 40% of the total national area and finding salinity conditions in soils is very frequent. Apart from these areas, diverse closed watersheds exist with salt accumulations and large coast areas with saline soils. There is not precise evaluation of the land areas in Mexico with salinity and sodium problems, especially in no agricultural areas. However, it can be pointed out, approximately the presence of 3,5 million hectares affected in arid and semiarid areas, 1 million hectares in other non agricultural areas, 800000 in coastal areas, 1 million in temporary agricultural areas and 500000 in irrigated agricultural areas; which totalizes 6,8 million hectares of soil affected by salt in the whole country (Ortiz O., 1992). SEMARNAP estimates that salinisation affects 3,2% of the country soils, which is equivalent to 6,2 millions hectares.
Regarding to physic degradation (compression) 30% of the country soils present these problems due to the massive use of agricultural machinery and cattle treading. In accordance with The National Commission of Arid Zones in 1985, 85% of the arid areas of 10 states had over shepherding and, derived from this activity mostly the half of the area was invaded by undesirable bush plants. In which only 27% of vegetable areas dedicated to cattle were in good conditions. In 1999, SEMARNAP estimated that 1,8% of the area was affected by physic degradations, mainly due to dryness (0,6%) and floods (0,6%).
On the other hand, it is estimated that 15% of the country soils are affected by acidification processes, thus they become more acid and sometimes present toxicity problems (mainly due to aluminum presence). Climate and the loss of vegetable covering are among the main factors that determine this degradation process.
Water management strategies
The practices of agro-forestry and water management detected during the unified survey are detailed below:
a) Restoration. Reforestation and agro-forestry plantations
b) Torrent control. Control dams; terraces of wall, terraces of successive formation, etc.
c) Vegetative practices. Coverage cultivation, organic fertilizers, muck-collectors, curtains wind-breaks, conservation farming.
d) Rainwater collection. Deviation channels and counters, capitation pools.
e) Pasture management. Introduction of grasslands (pasture) and improved fence.
Targeted regions
At the same time, another three communal lands from the north part of the country have been selected.
The Project WAFLA has conducted technical-scientific efforts in order to gather the traditional and improved knowledge in agro-forestry technologies, which have demonstrated their effectiveness in water protection and mitigation of the drought effects on the soil and its biotic resources. In this sense, three regions were selected in Mexico: the communal land Santa Martha in the region of The Lagoon of Durango State, with a high use of soil for animal growth which has lead on problems such as dejection of phreatic mantles, due to high use of water for forage cultivation. The region of La Aduana in Álamos municipality (West south of Sonora State), is an area declared Protected Natural Area covered by Deciduous Low Forest, with ecological problems due to its population density. The third region is the communal land Villa Insurgentes placed in Sombrete municipality (Zacatecas Sate), where the production of temporary crops favors the erosion processes during the most part of the year.
At the same time, another three communal lands from the north part of the country have been selected: Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila.
Networks and associations
The survey has allowed the identification of diverse key actors in the targeted areas: economic key actors (Cattle and productive Association), social actors (Groups of rural women and Town halls) and technological key actors (Baccalaureates, regional research centres of the Autonomous University Chapingo and state Universities) which have regional influence, and do not establish formal communication between themselves consequently, do not form networks in the benefit of the rural development and act against desertification.