Municipality socioeconomic characteristics and the probability of occurrence of Wildlife Management Units in Mexico

• Municipality socioeconomic characteristics and wildlife units were modeled.
• The probability of occurrence of UMAs is higher in municipalities with low marginality.
• The probability of occurrence of UMAs is higher in municipalities with less population density.
• The probability of occurrence of UMAs is independent to land use types.
• The probability of occurrence of UMAs is higher in municipalities with accommodation infrastructure.

Wildlife use is a strategy for livelihood diversification, and markets depend on the characteristics of consumers and providers as well as on regional socioeconomic variables, such as the accommodation infrastructure, population density, land use, and economic activities, which are all aspects considered in this study. In Mexico wildlife subsidy is applied with general criteria and economic information related to wildlife uses is scarce. Assessing a municipality's socioeconomic characteristics and the probability of the occurrence of Wildlife Management Units (UMAs) in Mexico provides useful information for identifying the present conditions that have an influence on the location and development of UMAs providing useful information for decision making. Geographical and socioeconomic approaches for describing the distribution of UMAs can lead to better decisions related to focalization and therefore to the improvement of wildlife and environmental policies that have an influence on livelihood quality.