Mesoamerican Biological Corridor

The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor is a regional conservation initiative linking natural habitats across Central America and southern Mexico to support biodiversity and ecological connectivity.

Biological corridor: A connected landscape that allows organisms to move between habitat patches. The initiative applies this connectivity idea across a regional network of habitats.
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor initiative: The regional program developed to coordinate habitat conservation across Mesoamerica. This initiative is the institutional form of the corridor concept.
Jaguar: A large wild cat native to the Americas and a top predator in many ecosystems. Its need for extensive connected habitat makes it a prominent corridor species.
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor program: A set of national and regional projects intended to implement the corridor’s conservation goals. Implementation turned the regional vision into programs with uneven local results.
Protected area: A geographically defined place managed to conserve nature and cultural values. Protected areas form core habitats within the corridor network.
Central American Commission for Environment and Development: A regional body that coordinates environmental cooperation among Central American governments. The commission helped establish regional political coordination for the corridor.
Mesoamerican Reef: A large coral reef system extending along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. Its coastal and marine ecosystems complement the corridor’s terrestrial conservation priorities.
Indigenous land rights: The rights of Indigenous peoples to own, govern, and use their traditional lands and resources. Recognition of these rights affects conservation decisions across corridor territories.
Habitat fragmentation: The division of continuous habitat into smaller, isolated patches. The corridor seeks to counter the isolation that fragmentation creates.
Managua Summit: A 1994 meeting of Central American presidents that advanced regional environmental cooperation. Its regional agenda helped create the political setting for the corridor.

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