Recovering landscape connectivity after long-term historical land cover changes in the mountain region of Oaxaca, Mexico

Tree cover dynamics are modeled by biophysical, social, cultural, political, and economic drivers. Drivers influencing tree cover loss are widely known, while triggers of tree recovery processes, such as changing productive activities, have yet to be studied in local contexts where integrated landscape management is needed. In this sense, a retrospective analysis from 1967 to 2020 was conducted using medium resolution images to evaluate the change in land use and vegetation, to analyze the impact of the transition from agriculture to coffee agroforestry in forest recovery, and to quantify the response of structural and functional connectivity of natural vegetation to those changes. The analysis focused on El Rincón, a Zapotec region located in Oaxaca, Mexico. The results show the recovery of 2061 ha of tree cover between 1967 and 2020, which causing the increase in functional landscape connectivity by 55%. In particular, the transition from crops to coffee agroforestry in a third of the study area (720 ha) from crops to coffee agroforestry accounted for 30% of the landscape probability of connectivity (PC), and agricultural land abandonment explained the remaining 25%. Our findings suggest that tree cover and landscape connectivity recovery are feasible in productive landscapes, highlighting the benefits of shifting intensive agricultural activities to shade coffee plantations.