Potential areas to establish rubber plantations (Hevea brasiliensis Willd. ex A. Juss) Müll. Arg.) in Oaxaca, Mexico

The development of commercial forest plantations in Mexico is a great opportunity for the forestry sector due to the climatic and edaphological conditions that the country presents. The cultivation of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) as a commercial forest plantation offers many benefits; however, the potential of this crop was not developed mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the suitability of the land for it. In this work is used the method of multi-criteria analysis and hierarchical analysis process for the zoning of potential optimal areas for the establishment of rubber plantations in the state of Oaxaca. The modeling was carried out from the agroecological requirements of H. brasiliensis and weighting of variables in a Geographic Information Systems environment. The hierarchies between the criteria to be weighted were defined with the support of specialized technicians and farmers related to the cultivation of rubber. The results indicate that the most important criterion for the modeling was the climate with a weighted average weight of 0.30 in precipitation, followed by temperatures (0.17). Based on the principles of Multicriteria Analysis it was possible to show that in the optimal development of Hevea brasiliensis climatic, edaphic and topographical factors are determinant. The optimal potential for the cultivation of rubber in the state are the municipalities of Matias Romero, Juan Lana, San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec, Santiago Jocotepec and Santiago Yaveo. It is hoped that the methodology employed will serve as a basis for similar applications with other species.