Introduction: Biodiversity and conservation of the yucatán peninsula, Mexico

Abstract

Home to large tracts of biodiverse tropical forests, harboring valuable endemic species and carrying the spirit of its millennium Mayan culture, the Yucatán Peninsula is of high interest not only to ecologists, conservation biologists and social scientists, but to a wider audience interested in its biodiversity and conservation. The threats to biodiversity and the need for conservation are now of global societal concern, but for many tropical and subtropical countries or regions up-to-date and reliable information is not easily available. All of the authors of this book, most of them biologists, have been actively doing research in the Yucatán Peninsula for many years and possess an intimate knowledge of its natural resources. Many of the authors have linked research on biodiversity to questions of conservation by working closely with farmers and forest dwellers in rural communities. In this book we want to share this knowledge with our readers, hoping that it will help them to appreciate the incredible natural diversity and lively cultural heritage of the Yucatán Peninsula and thereby provide tools for their conservation and food for thought.