More Belizeans wanted in national parks

More visitors than most of us ever imagined now flock to enjoy Belize’s natural wonders. But while tourists from Milwaukee to Melbourne are enjoying themselves in our forests, rivers, and sea, most Belizeans have yet to catch the jungle fever. Today News 5’s Jacqueline Woods discovered that imbalance may not be permanent.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Figures are not available on exactly how many Belizeans visit the country’s fifty-one protected areas, but it certainly does not come close to the thousands of tourists who do make daily trips to the nation’s spectacular parks, reserves, and natural monuments.

Diane Wade?Moore, Dir. Advocacy/Policy, Bz. Audubon Society

"The reality is that many Belizeans don’t really know about their national park system and what it entails, and what it has to offer them."

Dianne Wade?Moore is the Director for Advocacy and Policy at the Belize Audubon Society. She says one perception they are trying to change is that Belizeans believe there is nothing you can do at the sites but get bitten by bugs.

Dianne Wade?Moore

"On a whole because of the lack of information out there and the lack of awareness out there, Belizeans don’t tend to travel too far out of their urban centres for recreation. In our outreach campaign what we realize most feel that these parks are just a piece of bush put up some place and that there is nothing really for them to do when they get here."

B.A.S. has been working with a number of schools situated close to their sites to have them better appreciate the parks. Today as Belize joins the rest of the world to celebrate Earth Day, the children ventured out to the Blue Hole National Park and Guanacaste Park.

Jacqueline Woods

"The Blue Hole National Park consists of five hundred and seventy-five acres of primary and secondary forests. Today, it remains one of the most popular sights in the country."

The park’s landscape rises over two hundred feet and the area includes six trails. One takes you to St. Herman’s Cave…and it’s there the most adventurous students got the thrill of the day, a journey into the bowels of Belizean earth.

The park’s director, Alex Escalante, says he has been pleasantly surprised by the gradually increasing interest locals have expressed in the site since it opened in 1986.

Alex Escalante, Park Director, Blue Hole National Park

"They are coming to visit for themselves, not only by hearing what it has to offer. They come themselves to see what we have. We receive approximately two to three hundred locals, our own Belizeans coming to visit the park."

As Belizeans are being encouraged to visit the parks there are also plans to improve the management of these areas. According to Wade?Moore, both the Fisheries and Forest departments have signed co-management agreements with non-governmental organizations and community based organizations to take over the day to day management of the parks.

Dianne Wade?Moore

"Because one of the problems that we are experiencing in protected areas management is that the visitation is not enough to generate the funding that is necessary to put a warden out to patrol. And so what we have, for those parks that don’t have either an N.G.O. or C.B.O. counterpart managing it. We refer to them as paper parks, they are parks on paper, but without the management presence we have a lot of infractions in those park systems."

One park that is a microcosm of the country’s rainforest is the Guanacaste National Park. The site, situated at the junction of the Western and Hummingbird highways, has become one of the most easily accessible destinations for Belizeans, especially students.

Steven Swasey, Director, Guanacaste National Park

"Especially during the hot season, we have a lot of visitors due to our swim area. We have a beautiful swim area right at the Roaring Creek and of course last year we had over ten thousand school children visit, a little over five thousand Belizeans. This year, we are doing a lot better this year on Belizeans."

The park offers two trails that take you through a variety of plant and birds life.

Steven Swasey

"What we have done here mainly is to try to have an awareness about conservation in general. We have a little over twenty-one different buffer zones with different schools and what we do, we go in here and let the students know about the importance of this area, because of course the park got it’s name from a huge Guanacaste tree, which is over three hundred and fifty years old, and we let them know that by preserving this area here, a lot of other children can come here and learn a lot."

Park director Steven Swasey says there are plans underway to make the Guanacaste Park Trail into an equally enjoyable tour for the handicapped.

Steven Swasey

"The reason for that is because we have a lot of requests for people who want to go within our rainforests, and since Guanacaste is an introduction to what our rainforest looks like, by having a senior citizen trail, they can go all the way around. So we are working on that right now."

Now, it is hoped that the students will share what they have learnt with their peers and families. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.

The Belize Audubon Society also held similar activities today in Crooked Tree Village.