The Approach of Territorial Impact in the Study of Wildfires: The Case of the Biosphere Reserve La Sepultura in Chiapas, Mexico, 2025

Abstract

Territorial impact is a research approach developed within geography that enables the analysis of the effects of various phenomena on natural and cultural landscapes from a holistic and integrated perspective. Traditionally, distinctions have been made between environmental, social, and economic impacts; most territorial impact studies in the past have focused on specific economic activities, such as tourism. This paper demonstrates that the same approach can also be applied to a very different field: the study of forest fires, with particular emphasis on the social and economic dimensions—an area that until now has largely been limited to ecological and geotechnological studies. The research is conducted in La Sepultura Biosphere Reserve, a large protected natural area characterized by high floristic and faunistic richness and by its potential for the development of primary economic activities, but also by a high annual incidence of forest fires. The results are presented through thematic maps that reveal a heterogeneous spatial distribution of impacts across six localities surveyed during fieldwork: while three of the six localities perceive all three types of impacts with great intensity, others identify environmental impact as their primary concern. Furthermore, the study establishes a relationship between the local population’s economic activities and the causes of forest fires, whose distribution depends on several geographic factors such as the presence of roads and the location of agricultural and grazing areas.