Free and Sovereign State of Guerrero

The State of Guerrero is one of the 32 states of Mexico in the southern meridional region. With an area of just over 64,000 km2 (c. 25,000 square miles), it occupies just over 3% of Mexico with a population of around 3.7 million people. It borders the Pacific Ocean to the south, Michoacán to the west, Oaxaca to the east and Mexico State, Morelos and Puebla to the north. Guerrero is named in honour of the second president of the republic, General Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña.  In addition to the capital city, Chilpancingo and the largest city and famed beach result Acapulco, other cities in Guerrero include Petatlán, Ciudad Altamirano, Taxco, Iguala, Ixtapa, and Zihuatanejo.

Geographically, the state is mountainous and rugged with flat areas limited to small mesas and the Pacific coastline. It is divided into three regions: La Montaña (mountains), Tierra Caliente (hot lands) of the northeast and La Costa (coast). La Montaña is mostly forested and is concentrated in the north and east of the state. Tierra Caliente and is situated in the lowlands along the Balsas River. La Costa is divided into two sub-regions called Costa Chica and Costa Grande. The Costa Chica extends from Acapulco to the border with Oaxaca. Costa Grande extends west of Acapulco to the Balsas River. Much of the state’s current agriculture and livestock raising concentrated in La Costa as it is relatively flat.

Acapulco – ©eurimaco CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

There are many rivers including the Balsas River, the Nexapa, the Amacuzac, the Tepecoacuilco or Huitzuco and the Cocula or Iguala River. Other rivers in the state include the Cuetzala, the Alohuixtla, the Cutzamala, the Tlapaneco Huamuxtitlan, the Milpilla or Zumpango, the Río del Oro, the Zayulapa, the Huautla and the Río Unión.

The most important economic activity is tourism followed by agriculture and mining with production of crops like bananas, coffee, rice, corn, and sugarcane, as well as mined copper, silver, and gold.

The state’s climate is dominated by the rainy tropical areas and rainy temperate areas. The former has high temperatures above 18 °C year-round and experiences most rain in the summer and early autumn. Most of this is found near the coast under 2,000 m. In the higher elevations away from the coast in the Sierra Madre del Sur, the climate is temperate but also experiences the same pattern of rainfall.

Birding Guerrero

Flora of the state is determined by altitude and climate. The higher mountain areas have forests of pine and oyamel fir, with amate, and other tropical trees are found in the lower elevations. Tropical hardwoods are mostly found in the lower elevations near the coast. The state has a wide variety of wildlife from deer, small mammals, large numbers of birds and reptiles and insects.

Alpixafia, southern Guerrero – c3c12013, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Five terrestrial ecoregions extend across the state. The Southern Pacific dry forests lie on the southern slopes of the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, extending from the coast up to 1400 meters elevation. The forests are predominantly deciduous during the long dry season. The Sierra Madre del Sur pine-oak forests occupy the higher slopes of the Sierra Madre del Sur. These forests harbour a great diversity of species, including many endemic orchids, butterflies, and birds. The Balsas dry forests lie in the basin of the Balsas River, north of the Sierra Madre del Sur, and are notable for the diversity of mammal species, including jaguarundi, coati, ocelot, and collared peccary. The northernmost part of the state includes portions of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests, which occupy the mountainous northern rim of the Balsas basin. The Mexican South Pacific mangroves are found in coastal lagoons along the coast of Michoacán, Guerrero, and Oaxaca.

The Parque Natural de Guerrero is a natural reserve located in the central valleys of the state, extending for about eighty km2. Most of the area is covered in pine and holm oak forests that covered the high altitude valleys of this region.