Arturo Gómez-Pompa Professor of Ecology and Botany in the Faculty of Sciences of the National University in the Institute of Biology at UNAM. These distinctive and academic positions have gained Gómez-Pompa a prestigious reputation in the ecological world. He discovered the use of Theobroma cacao, or the tree of chocolate, as ancient crops in rejolladas and cenotes within the Yucatán Peninsula. This confirmed his hypothesis on the anthropogenic origins of the Mayan forests and advanced future research in the domestication of tropical trees. Gómez-Pompa created a database for the Flora of Veracruz project in the 1960s that is still utilized to this
Moniliophthora perniciosa cacao beans annually. "T. cacao" L. is an understorey tropical plant, and the understorey growth of cacao helps to preserve habitat for numerous animal and bird species in these regions. With the production losses associated with WBD, tropical landowners are forced to convert their land to other production systems that usually require the destruction of the forest cover. WBD does not only affect the supply of cacao, but also largely impacts the conservation of tropical environment where cacao is grown. Moniliophthora perniciosa Moniliophthora perniciosa (previously "Crinipellis perniciosa") is a fungus that causes "witches' broom disease" (WBD) of the cocoa tree