According to itypeusa, Mexico forms the great southern appendage of North America which continues towards S in the lands of Isthmian America, which begin at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, still in Mexican territory. The northern borders are indicated by the Río Bravo (Rio Grande for the USA) and by a broken line that runs from Ciudad Juárez to the Pacific coast, including the long peninsula of Baja California. AS Mexico encompasses most of the Yucatán Peninsula. In the context of Latin America, Mexico is one of the countries with the most solid national structure and this due to its particular history. Seat in the pre-Columbian era of the Aztec and Mayan realms, it was born from the Spanish graft on the Amerindian world, but such as not to completely erase the Indian matrix. It gained independence from Spain as early as the early nineteenth century, becoming a “hinge” country between the two Americas. Since then, the proximity to the United States has assumed great importancewhich, during the century. XIX, some important Mexican territories such as Florida, Texas and Upper California were annexed. Mexico is the son of revolutionary movements that bring to mind the mythical names of characters such as Emiliano Zapata, Francisco “Pancho” Villa and Venustiano Carranza. At the beginning of the 21st century it has to cope with permanent economic and demographic imbalances, with a capital which, at 2300 meters above sea level, is at the center of an urban agglomeration of about 20 million residents.

TERRITORY: ENVIRONMENT

In the South of the Country (Yucatán and reliefs that dominate the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Gulf of Mexico) there are tropical forests that host all the species of the Caribbean environment, from mahogany to cedar, alternating with secondary forests, shrubs, including there is the chicle plant, the sapotilla or sapodilla. They occupy a total of 33.7% of the national territory, including, among other things, pine forests, with half of the species existing in the world, oaks, etc., inhabited by rural communities, mostly indigenous. Deforestation, often by poaching, and the practice of setting fires to make land for agriculture and grazing fertile, cause the loss of about 600,000 hectares of scrub every year. In the areas where the two-season climate is more pronounced, the vegetation is savannah with xerophilous species: particularly numerous are the succulents here, such as agaves, yuccas, typical of the Mexican landscape, as well as bushy plants such as mezquite, ocotillo etc. The richness that characterizes the biodiversity present in the country is extraordinary: Mexico hosts 10% of the plants and vertebrates existing in the world, many of which are endemic, on an area that corresponds to just 1% of that of the planet. The tropical forests of the Yucatán up to Chiapas are inhabited by coatis, howler monkeys, anteaters, peccaries, raccoons, tapirs, jaguars, ocelots, margay, pumas; among birds, the rare quetzal, several species are, parrots, toucans and, in the coastal mangrove forests, ibis, flamingos, pelicans, jabirus; among the reptiles, crocodiles, in particular caimans, iguanas, snakes and sea turtles. Wild dogs, coyotes are found in the highlands, and in the northern plains herds of cattle and horses were once in the wild. The coral reef, along the Caribbean coast, as well as off the Pacific coast, is home to a wide variety of fish and marine mammals, including some large cetaceans such as the gray whale, the Californian seal and the elephant seal. The inland water system is being monitored by the authorities in relation to the progressive depletion of the aquifers which has caused the sinking of land in some large cities on the border with the United States – and in particular in the capital. Other environmental issues of national interest concern atmospheric pollution, which affects industrial areas and major centers of the country, and solid waste treatment. The first protected areas were established in the second half of the 19th century; in 1917 the first national park was born,while another 40 parks were created in the 1930s. There are 68 national parks, in addition to biosphere reserves, flora and fauna protection areas and numerous natural resource protection areas (13.7%). Among the numerous Mexican sites chosen by UNESCO, four are also those of a flora-fauna character: the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve (1987), located on the Caribbean coast of Yucatán, which includes the marine belt, the coral reef and the tropical forests of the region with a wide variety of ecosystems; the Vizcaíno Whale Sanctuary (1993), which is instead located in the central part of Baja California and is considered of great value for the study of oceanographic processes and where whales and other marine mammals overwinter and reproduce; the islands and protected areas of the Golfo de California (2005, 2007), in northeastern Mexico; the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (2008) which includes a forested mountainous area 100 km northwest of Mexico City where millions, perhaps a billion, of butterflies winter and leave this location in the spring towards North America and the eastern regions of Canada to return in the fall.