Sierra Madre Forests & Mexican Drylands bioregion

The bioregion’s land area is provided in units of 1,000 hectares. The protection goal is the combined Global Safety Net (GSN1) areas for the component ecoregions. The protection level indicates the percentage of the GSN goal that is currently protected on a scale of 0-10. N/A means data is not available at this time.

  • 116,853
    Total Land Area (1000 ha)
  • 8
    Number of Ecoregions
  • 43%
    Protection Target
  • 2
    Protection Level

The Sierra Madre bioregion, located in the Northern America (Nearctic) realm, covers the upper half of Mexico and consists of an array of different ecoregions that are tightly interconnected. The bioregion is dominated by desert and dry shrublands, but the eastern and western ranges of the Sierra Madres are covered with subtropical pine and oak forests. It contains eight ecoregions – Sonoran-Sinaloan Subtropical Dry Forest (324), Sierra Madre Occidental Pine-Oak Forests (326), Sierra Madre Oriental Pine-Oak Forests (327), Central Mexican Matorral (427), Chihuahuan Desert (428), Meseta Central Matorral (432), Tamaulipan Matorral (436), Tamaulipan Mezquital (437). The total land area of this bioregion is approximately 116 million hectares. 

The Sierra Madre Forests & Mexican Drylands bioregion is part of the Mexican Drylands subrealm and is made up of eight ecoregions: (1) Sonoran-Sinaloan Subtropical Dry Forest (2) Sierra Madre Occidental Pine-Oak Forests (3) Chihuahuan Desert (4) Tamaulipan Mezquital (5) Sierra Madre Oriental Pine-Oak Forests (6) Tamaulipan Matorral (7) Meseta Central Matorral (8) Central Mexican Matorral.

One Earth is dedicated to mobilizing philanthropic capital to protect the ecosystems and peoples of Northern America. Visit the Project Marketplace to explore projects in this realm that need your support. Learn more about each of the Sierra Madre Forests & Mexican Drylands ecoregions below.

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