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To identify the concordance between the nutritional status of preschoolers and the maternal perception of the children's nutritional status and physical appearance, a cross-sectional study was conducted and included 165 randomly selected preschoolers. The BMI-for-age was calculated in the preschoolers and their mothers were asked to give their verbal and visual perception of the nutritional status of their children. The BMI status of the preschoolers was low weight in 2.4%, normal weight in 87.3%, and overweight in 10.3%. Mothers erroneously perceived well-nourished children as being low-weight, both verbally (p = 0.71) and visually (p = 0.61), but their perception of overweight was adequate in most cases. Children with normal weight are mistakenly perceived by their mothers as having low weight, both verbally and visually. The maternal perception of overweight children was better than low weight and mothers of children with high BMIs had adequate perception.

Background and Research Aims: Human activities seeking to satisfy various needs have resulted in deforestation and other forest cover change processes. The Natural Protected Areas are among the most efficient instruments to contain forest loss. The compensation from conservation is not sufficient to compete with land uses with higher economic rent, such as timber extraction and food production. This study summarizes the evidence and identifies research gaps on forest processes caused by productive activities in Mexico's Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Methods: We systematically reviewed the scientific literature investigating forest processes caused by the productive activities in the Calakmul, including the transition zone. We calculated the frequencies of codes on forest processes and productive activities in the entire sample (53), evaluated each code's significance in the qualitative synthesis and interpretation, and summarized the measurements of forest processes considering only the primary studies (46). Results: Deforestation was the most commonly investigated process. Traditional agriculture initially caused deforestation, while livestock and conventional agriculture became more dominant recently with the agricultural intensification policies. Few articles investigated forest degradation experiencing a steady increase from fallow shortening and selective logging. Also, few studies identified forest recovery resulting from long fallows and core zone delimitation. No publications evaluated the forest cover impact of sustainable initiatives. Conclusion: The tendency to quantify deforestation on a regional scale masks presence of other forest processes. The rural development programs in Calakmul did not include the environmental perspective, while participation in sustainable initiatives was low. The understanding of productive activities at the local level will allow differentiation of the long-term from temporary forest dynamic. Implications for Conservation: To assure resilient and inclusive growth in Calakmul, the reduced-impact logging, sustainable agricultural intensification, improved fallows, and beekeeping should be supported with monetary resources that cover the transaction costs of unsustainable livestock breeding and industrial agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent land cover analysis reveals significant forest recovery around the world, suggesting that some countries may be in a forest transition. However, remotely sensed imagery does not reveal the driving causes of forest recovery, which may be due to active reforestation efforts or natural successional processes (passive reforestation). We aimed to distinguish these two processes in the priority temperate forests surrounding the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (342,773 ha) in central Mexico. We combine an analysis of remotely sensed imagery with field interviews (n = 43) to examine the mechanisms and drivers of observed forest recovery. Our analysis of the satellite imagery revealed a net increase of 3,798 ha of forest between 1986 and 2012, yet the rate of recovery is slowing. Our interview data revealed that the vast majority of the recovered forests are the result of natural regrowth (passive reforestation), and most of this regrowth is observed on previously degraded forest lands. We estimate that between 58 and 429 ha have been recovered from active reforestation efforts in the 1986–2012 period. We find that reduced logging and grazing pressures are important drivers of forest recovery, while agricultural abandonment may be less influential than often believed. Our results suggest that reforestation investments might be wisely spent supporting and maintaining the natural resilience of forests rather than on costly reforestation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of fire for traditional agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry is highly important to farmers in developing countries where this practice is continuously blamed as being the main cause of forest fires. That is the case in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR), Mexico, where paradoxically, little is known about the inhabitants' traditional uses of fire. In this study we characterise fire users, describe traditional fire uses and identify the ecological and social rules involved in the use of fire in the MBBR. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews we found a robust body of knowledge among local people regarding the geophysical and ecological factors determining fire behaviour. This information is transferred orally and through everyday practices from parents to children. We identified nine types of fire uses. The most common is 'mound burns', which entails a process of extraction-piling-drying-burning of weeds from agricultural fields. Social rules are aimed at decreasing the risk of forest fires. Our results suggest there is a traditional fire knowledge system in the MBBR that has undergone changes and has adapted to the ecological and social reality of the region during the past few decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Deforestation and environmental contamination from the expansion of neoliberal agriculture, including transgenic soy, turned the municipality of Hopelchén, in the Mexican state of Campeche, into a focus of cultural and economic tensions. Previous studies focused on analyzing the conflict between the original population, Maya traditional farmers and beekeepers, and the recently arrived migrants, Mennonite industrial farmers. We used 'A Theory of Access' (Ribot and Peluso 2003) to analyze everyday interactions and relations among the two ethnic groups, and opinions of Maya farmers on Mennonites presence in the area. Our sources of data were scientific publications and interviews with local farmers. We found that Mennonites have a broader "bundle of powers" since they have more capital, farm machinery, technical agricultural knowledge, and organizational and entrepreneurial skills than Maya farmers. Besides the reported conflicts, Maya and Mennonite farmers also enter into many everyday interactions and relations of cooperation and mutual dependence. These results may inform the design of public policies for sustainable rural development, including the national REDD+ strategy, to promote positive environmental and economic changes and help to ameliorate social conflict in the municipality. • Mennonites act as agents of the agroindustry model in the Hopelchén municipality. • Mennonites have more access (capital, technology) to local resources than Maya. • Capital is the most important access mechanism. • Maya and Mennonites cooperate and develop certain mutual dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the horizontal and vertical policy integration for REDD+ has been conceptualized and unfolded in Mexico during the REDD+ readiness and early implementation phase (2008–2019). We used the document analysis and interviews with key actors to identify changes that REDD+ induced in forestry and agriculture sectors' policy making and programs at the national level and in two REDD+ states, Campeche and Jalisco. The policy integration for REDD+ in Mexico is conceptualized as compatibility-within-a-framework, i.e., promotes coordination and compromises among the objectives of land-use policies endorsing sustainable rural development. The state environmental agencies play an active role in involving the agricultural authorities in formal and informal interactions. This resulted in the design (Campeche) and even implementation (Jalisco) of REDD+-aligned programs and instruments. The progress at the subnational level is hampered by the national agriculture and forestry agencies' policy inertia and lack of resources. To support the subnational REDD+ policy integration advancement, more resources and powers should be made available to the state environmental authorities which would help them directly reach more international funding and include other important REDD+ actors and establish mutually accountable relationships with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The objective of study was to explore short-term trends of processes that determine land-use change in Sierra Norte of Oaxaca (SNO), Mexico. Land use and land cover changes (LULCC) were estimated in a complex mosaic of vegetation in the SNO from 1980 to 2000, and projected them to 2020 through a Markovian model. SNO is highly vulnerable to climatic change according to a 2050 GCM scenario. However, 3% annual rate of tropical and temperate forest deforestation from agriculture and livestock encroachment, suggest the threat from land-use change is higher than that from climatic change for this study site. Productive land-use strategies are needed to reduce such high deforestation rates for tropical regions. Controlling deforestation would also reduce short-term effects of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Because of the necessity to evaluate anthropogenic ecosystem changes, it is imperative to separate short-term influences such as deforestation, from long-term influences such as climatic change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The best choice for feeding the newborn child is breast milk, and when it is not possible to breastfeed a baby, the breast milk is replaced by lacteal formula, which is why numerous studies focus their attention on the analysis of the diverse components of baby formula as well as functions in the breastfed baby. Fatty acids are components of great nutritional importance in the fetus and in the newborn child. Nowadays it is estimated that the fetus, during the last trimester of the gestational period and the newborn child, during the first six months of life, need a great contribution of araquidonic and docosahexaenoic acids, due to the fact that the speed of transformation of the predecessors to the hepatic level are not sufficient to cover the metabolic requirements of these fatty acids and it is the mother who contributes them through placental transport during gestation and her milk during lactation. The Organization of Food and Agriculture (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Society of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Pediatric Nutrition (ESPGHAN) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that lacteal formula imitate the composition of the breast milk, especially in the fatty polyunsaturated acids (PUFA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the content of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in fresh cheeses type panela produced in several places of Mexico. Samples were taken during the period from August, 2007 to April, 2008 in supermarkets of Mexico City, where cheeses from diverse industries and places of Mexico are offered. Samples were tried and analyzed by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) under the directives of methods proposed by the AOAC. The results showed that all cheese industries had incidence of AFM1. The 27 % of the positive samples was overheading of the tolerance level established by some countries (0.25 µg/Kg) like Austria, Honduras, Switzerland and Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]