The Sierra de Manantlan Biosphere Reserve- Jalisco

They say that the name of this region means the place that catches the rain. The Sierra de Manantlan is part of the cultural region known as the Occident of Mexico that developed in parallel to the pre-Columbian cultures of Meso-America. Its most famous artifacts are not massive stone monuments, but playful figurines drawn from everyday life: mothers with their children, children playing with animals, soldiers, acrobats. Although there has been cultural deterioration, many of the indigenous peoples have held on to their traditions, notably the community of Ayotitlan.

This mountainous area, located more specifically in the central western states of Jalisco and Colima falls within the limits of the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve (SMBR), the most important protected area in western Mexico due to its biodiversity and resource richness. Ecologically, the watershed lies within the transition between two biogeographic provinces, the Neartic and the Neotropic. This transition results in a large array of ecosystems with an associated floral and faunal high diversity. Vegetation types may include tropical deciduous forest, tropical subdeciduos forest, oak forest, pine-oak forest, pine forest, fir forest, mountain mesophytic forest, secondary vegetation and pasture lands (Jardel 1992). The Sierra de Manantlan has 2,900 species of identified vascular plants, which represent around 35 - 40% of the vascular plants of the state of Jalisco. One example of these endemic species is the perenne ''teosintle', Zea diploperenis, a wild relative of cultivated corn. The Sierra de Manantlan also encompasses 110 species of mammals, 336 birds, 85 reptiles and amphibians, 238 insect families, and 7 orders of arachnids (SEMARNAP, 2000).