Rancho Dolores villagers promote conservation
Several days before Swallow Caye received its recognition another area of similar size was put under official protection. Janelle Chanona filed this report from Rancho Dolores.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
On Monday residents of Rancho Dolores Village in the Belize District, saw the end of three and a half years of hard work, as the Government of Belize officially launched the Spanish Creek Wildlife Sanctuary. The protected area encompasses almost six thousand acres of government land and is designed to protect the aquatic life of the Spanish Creek, which has become severely threatened by illegal fishing practices.
Raymond Reneau, Villager, Rancho Dolores
“One time about fifteen years ago you come up this side and all the sticks you see in the water, you see about five, six hicatees on one. And now if you travel all the way and if you see one hicatee, you see plenty.”
Villager Raymond Reneau believes the problem originates outside the immediate area.
Raymond Reneau
“You have different people that like to come in this area and just raid it…they come and camp and ketch out the fishes in nets and things like that. And the way we usually fishing is with line, hook and line right. So when they come they take out everything, small one, big one and sometimes they throw away the small ones, but it’s too late because it has already died right.”
Earl Perez, Chairman, Rancho Dolores Village
“Now we’ve noticed a depletion of the stock of freshwater fish, coupled with the problem with the talapia who come in… And well, people tell me is a little dangerous for the freshwater species. So we see all the stock going down so we decide if we protect it, at least from the poachers, then we should have it for a long time.”
According to village chairman, and leader of the Rancho Dolores Environment and Development Group, Earl Perez, with the support of the residents from all the villages along the Spanish Creek, and funding from the United Nations Small Grants Program, the sanctuary will also provide much needed employment opportunities to an otherwise economically challenged area.
Earl Perez
“In the recent past, we experience a lot of draining in labour force from the community, people going to other districts or to the states or something. People just migrate; there’s nothing to do. So rather than see that happen, we just decide to come up with some idea to keep that at home.”
People like Perez and Reneau look forward to the development of the tourism sector. They and others hope the dark waters of the Spanish Creek will lure sports fishermen to the area. Others point to the area’s abundance of natural treasures as an attraction for researchers.
John Pinelo Jr., Protected Areas Officer, Forestry Dept.
“You have a lot of universities and scientists that would pay good money to come down, stay in a village, and work in an environment, but the environment has to have its integrity, it has to be a real natural area. You can’t have logging and hunting and all those different types of activities in there otherwise it breaks down the integrity and your research isn’t as good.”
Because the area is now a wildlife sanctuary, villagers cannot extract lumber from the forest or hunt for local delicacies, but they seem prepared to give up those rights if it means the creation a more secure and prosperous future. Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.
In certain cases where community members depend on fishing to feed their families, the Minister of Natural Resources has the power to make regulations that allow limited use of a protected area for subsistence fishing.
