Page 54 - STRATEGY Magazine

In a mere 17 years, Mexico’s National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) has protected 173 areas around the country. Yet Mexi- co’s precious biological resources remain under threat from mining, real estate development, and overuse.
Maya temples to Colonial neoclassicism to contemporary schools including Ex- pressionism, Functionalism, and Mod- ernism. Mexican literature ranges from Pre-Columbian creation stories like the Popol Vuh to the works of legends Ga- briel García Márquez—Colombian by birth but a devoted Mexican for most of his life—and Octavio Paz, both of whom won the Nobel Prize for Litera- ture. Other great writers hailing from Mexico include Elena Poniatowska, Jorge Volpi, Carlos Fuentes, and Juan Rulfo.
A NATURAL PLAYGROUND
While Mexico may lag in some econom- ic and social indicators, it shines in its biological wealth. Mexico is one of only 17 of the world’s nearly 200 countries considered to be megadiverse by Con- servation International. Megadiverse countries, while taking up 10 percent of the world’s area, hold more than 70 percent of the earth’s biodiversity.
Among the factors influencing extreme biodiversity are temperature, rainfall, soil, and altitude. Mostly found in the tropics and subtropics, these warm, moist, stable environments, particu- larly the ecosystems in tropical rain- forests, allow flora and fauna to thrive. In addition, diverse topographies such as long coastlines and mountain land- scapes with their varied environments, complex soils, and range of climates, encourage the evolution of unique spe-
cies. Finally, isolation—in this usage, meaning the separation of islands and continents—promotes the development of unique biological species.
Mexico, a predominately mountain- ous country with long coastlines, sits in the tropics, bridging the long-isolated continents of North and South Amer- ica. The dry lands of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts make up portions of northern Mexico. Treeless alpine tundra dots the volcanic highlands above 13,000 feet, while pine and oak forests cover lower elevations. South- ern Mexico is home to savannas and tropical rainforests.
Consequently, Mexico ranks second in the world in terms of unique reptile and mammal species (804 and 438, re- spectively) and fourth for amphibian species (290) and types of flora (26,000). Among the unique characters in Mexi- co’s animal kingdom are the jaguar, the largest wildcat in North America, which resides in the southern jungles, and the volcano rabbit, the world’s sec- ond-smallest rabbit species, which is native to four volcanoes just south of México City.
Additionally, Mexico’s Gulf of Cali- fornia, a body of water separating the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland, is thought to be one of the most diverse seas on the plan- et. Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau described the body of water as “the world’s aquarium.” The gulf is home to
sea turtles and dolphins, some of which are endangered, more than 900 species of fish, and a diver’s paradise of coral reefs. This unique place also offers a protected sanctuary where whales, in- cluding the world’s largest, the blue whale, as well as humpbacks, orcas, and fin orcas, fin whales, and sperm whales can breed.
SECOND TO NONE
“Mexico is a country with extreme- ly talented people, historically and currently,” avers TEC360’s Medina Mora. Indeed, Mexico’s inhabitants are descended from ancient leaders who founded powerful civilizations, great thinkers who invented previous- ly unknown disciplines, explorers who opened new worlds, and some of the greatest artists, artisans, and engineers of all time. Thierry Mahé, General Man- ager of CNH Industrial–FIAT Group, sums it up, noting that a machine is the same anywhere in the world, while “Mexico’s main asset is the nobility of the people at work.”
Perhaps it is their unique heritage that has enabled Mexicans not merely to endure, but to develop a particular sense of their own worth, expressed in the mantra “Como México no hay dos.” It is with this conviction and a spirit of perseverance that Mexicans confront challenges, recalling always the inher- itance of a powerful civilization prom- ised by the Aztec gods.
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