The natural vegetation of the area is lowland rainforest; however much as been cut down by logging and clearing for farmland and pasture. Most of the municipality�s forest and wildlife is found in a number of reserves including the Centro Ecological Recreativo El Zapotal, the Cerro Maxtumatz� State Reserve, the Vedada Villa Allende Protected Forest Zone and the Sumidero Canyon National Park. The largest of these is Sumidero Canyon which spreads out over 21789.41 hectares in three other municipalities besides Tuxtla. It was established in 1980. El Zapotal was created in 1990 and extends over 192.57 hectares completely within the municipality. It contains lowland rainforest, subtropical forest and some highland rainforest. All of these contain deciduous and perennial species. Cerro Maxtumatz� was established in 1997 and with an area of 613.70 hectares within the municipality. It contains oak, holm oak and tropical forests and with some areas still containing old growth. Because of the rapid growth of the city, these green areas are under pressure. In 2011, over 200 illegal squatters were evicted from an area called �El para�so� on the Mactumactz� Mountain, which is an ecological reserve in the municipality. This settlement covered an area of ten hectares
