The Gulf of Honduras: paradise in peril

The waters, cayes, and coastline that make up the Gulf of Honduras are still considered well off the beaten path…not just by tourists from North America and Europe, but even by most residents of the three countries that define it. But as the global stage shrinks and its smaller actors must fight ever harder to survive, the nations of Guatemala, Honduras, and particularly Belize are beginning to realize that this little known corner of the Caribbean possesses riches not only of local and regional importance, but also of major international significance. Last month cameraman Brent Toombs and I had the opportunity to spend five days exploring the area as guests of the Tri-National Alliance for the Conservation of the Gulf of Honduras. What we found was that while the threats to the area’s environment may vary, no solutions are possible without cooperation.

Janelle Chanona

There are twenty-five protected areas in the Gulf of Honduras, ranging from tropical jungles, mangrove forests and marsh wetlands, to sandy beaches, sea grass beds, and coral reefs. Intricately linked geographically and biologically, but divided by sometimes impenetrable political boundaries, the ecosystems of the Gulf of Honduras are highly sensitive to a long list of negative realities.

But while the politicians of Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala navigate the diplomatic channels in search of a solution to the Guatemalan claim, the environmentalists are in the water, desperate to protect the coastal and marine resources of the Gulf of Honduras before it?s too late.

Calling themselves the Tri-National Alliance for the Conservation of the Gulf of Honduras (TRIGOH), non-governmental organisations from all three countries have recognized that they face similar problems: overwhelming poverty, over-fishing, illegal logging, poaching, and most frustratingly, a lack of resources to fight back. Determined to make a positive difference, TRIGOH is working from the ground up…getting public opinion on their side before they take their case to the respective governments.

To help them do this, in mid-May, TRIGOH coordinated a first of a kind tour of the Gulf of Honduras, inviting the press and other opinion leaders to see first-hand the beauty and wonder of the areas they are trying to protect.

Our trip starts in the coastal city of Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. Named for a past president and located on the Bay of Amatique, Barrios is a leading Guatemalan port, capitalizing on banana and coffee exports. Home to more than forty thousand people, most economic activity happens around the harbour, where fishing and the servicing of boats are primary occupations. But while there are plenty of passengers for water taxis, when it comes to fish, the bay is empty. Man-made water pollution and natural contaminants have claimed a significant percentage of marine species: there hasn?t been a manatee sighting in more than four years here and fishermen must travel for miles to find food…usually finding themselves in Belizean waters.

Efforts here have centred around the bay and the watersheds of the surrounding mountains above.

On the Rio Dulce, fishermen from the nearby city of Livingston straddle tiny canoes while baiting nets to catch cangrejo azul or blue crabs. Livingston, locally known as La Buga, Garifuna for river mouth, is another of Guatemala?s coastal communities. Looking around, it?s hard not to notice the lack of economic opportunity.

That?s the same story further west along the coast, up the Sarstoon River. The Sarstoon serves as the southern border between Belize and Guatemala and fishing camps dot the Guatemalan shoreline. It is here the Foundation for Eco-Development and Conservation (FUNDAECO) is working to improve the basic living conditions of residents by providing alternate sources of income.

One route is eco-tourism…like a peaceful boat ride through a meandering maze of mangrove.

Janelle Chanona

?On the Guatemalan side of the Sarstoon River, the environmental organization FUNDAECO has established the Cerro Sarstun Reserve. Trails cut into the rainforest give visitors a chance to view the local flora and fauna.?

But across the river, Belizeans contend their flora and fauna are under constant threat from gill nets, illegal logging, and poaching.

Joanna Monk

?We also have a groundbreaking agreement, inter-institutional agreement with FUNDAECO to work on a work plan to manage the Sarstoon Watershed from a bi-lateral perspective.?

For the past three years, Joanna Monk has been working for the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIM). Monk and her Guatemalan counterparts wade through politics and poverty on a daily basis.

Joanna Monk, SATIM

?The buffer zone, technically for the Sarstoon Temash National Park on the Belize side, is in Guatemala and the buffer zone for the Rio Sarstun Multi-Use area, technically is on the Belize side, so there is tremendous overlap and we have a lot of resource extraction issues in common and also recognizing that Guatemalans tend to come into Belizean waters and forests to extract resources and if we work together at the grassroots level we?ll come up with a reasonable solution. ?

That solution, while in sight, will take laws, and laws with the teeth, on both sides of the border.

Joanna Monk

?Both on the larger level, working with the national governments to look at commonalities in legislation and laws and implementing those laws. I also believe looking seriously at livelihood alternatives on both sides and working together, because the communities in the Sarstoon Temash region and the communities in Sarstoon Guatemala in that area are some of the poorest areas of the country and therefore need tremendous intervention.?

Charlie Dixon, European Dir., Gulf of Honduras Project

?It?s pretty hard because at the end of the day political decisions need to be made.?

But for Charlie Dixon, the European Director of another environmental effort, the Gulf of Honduras Project, high level political support is paramount.

Charlie Dixon

?It needs to be sorted out somehow, this issue. Because unless there?s a political solution, we?re not going to get the local solution. We can try to sort things out on a local level and there?s an understanding, but the law is the question here. And so, this is where we need to get to, this will be the next step.?

On day two of our journey, it is clear why Belize would look like an oasis to our neighbours. But their problems have inevitably spilled over across the border.

Take the issue of illegal fishing. While the practice is inexcusable, for some local environmentalists, it is understandable.

Godsman Ellis, BELPO

?People need subsistence. It is for this reason that they come over. The problem is over fishing. If one area is over fished and we are protecting the area which has the fish, what is the area to do that has depleted its stock??

?We can be speaking in Belize but it will not have the effect as speaking also in Guatemala and in Honduras with the same voice.?

Belize has the greatest representation in TRIGOH, with more than six local organisations listed as members, indicating just how much of our territory is protected and managed. But as Marco Cerezo, executive secretary for TRIGOH maintains, Belize?s efforts will be in vain without the cooperation of the other two countries.

Marco Cerezo, TRIGOH

?Fish, manatees, contamination, pollution, trash don?t recognise any borders. The trash that you receive here on the Sapodilla Cayes for instance may come from Guatemala City through the Motagua River, or it may come from Puerto Cortez through the large rivers that come down into the Gulf of Honduras. Again, pollution travels in an east to west fashion, so pollution will reach Belize even if it comes from another country. Likewise, fish may spawn and aggregate in Belize but currents will probably take them down to Guatemala. So we need countries to agree on managing this area.?

According to Cerezo, maritime disasters like oil spills and mass contamination–issues for all major ports–could all but destroy the fifteen coastal protected areas in the Gulf of Honduras.

Marco Cerezo

?Industries, ports, navigational companies have not taken enough measures to protect the environment. One of our key proposals as TRIGOH is that we are requesting the International Maritime Organization to declare the Gulf of Honduras a particularly sensitive sea area and what we have been lobbying the ports and the port authorities in the three countries, so that we can get enough support governments, from port companies, from navigational companies so that the Gulf of Honduras receives this additional protection from the International Maritime Organization.?

Day three, and our convoy of conservationists head for Tela, Honduras. With long white, sandy beaches, a tourist town atmosphere and bustling port, Tela is a picturesque slice of paradise. The municipality also borders the Jeannette Kawas National Park.

Formerly known as Punta Sal, the park was renamed in 1995 in memory of an assassinated environmentalist.

Marco Cerezo

?Obviously, the national park put limit to the abusive growth of cattle ranchers and destructive uses of nature, so she was pushing a lot with schools, she mobilized civil society in Tela, she carried out manifestations, demonstrations in support of the creation of the national park and that?s why she was shot.?

One can see why Kawas died trying to save this place.

Honduras is represented by only one environmental organisation in TRIGOH, but politically, has made perhaps the boldest step by empowering the local municipality of Puerto Cortez to approve projects which impact the environment. Fidel Lopez, Cortez?s Chief Environmental Protection Officer, says getting his countrymen to change their ways is a difficult task.

Fidel Lopez

?People, when they find out that they can have a job opportunity, an economic opportunity to fill all the basic necessities, they are not so easy to integrate. But if they learn by experience that it is possible, then they follow. To create job opportunities is not easy.?

Janelle Chanona

When you look at all the problems facing the Gulf of Honduras, it would be easy to give up and say the challenge is just too big and too complex…but the absence of an alternative has galvanized environmentalists from all three countries to at least make a start. And for their point of departure, they have chosen the best place…together.?

We would like to thank TRIGOH and one of its member groups, Placencia based Friends of Nature, for helping to make this report possible.