Large grant will fund Chiquibul project
It’s a large and beautiful area of primary jungle … and while lately the Chiquibul Forest has been in the news as a place to get lost, we were reminded today how critical it is to the nation’s natural heritage. News Five’s Kendra Griffith explains.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Consisting of two hundred and sixty-six thousand acres, the Chiquibul National Park is the largest protected area in Belize.
Rafael Manzanero, Prog. Dir., Chiquibul Maya Mountains
?It is a part of a tri-national bioregion, forming part of the largest remaining block of tropical forest in this part of the world. It is an area of outstanding biological diversity and provides critical habitat for many endangered species.?
Valdemar Andrade, Executive Director, PACT
?In the contiguous forest of the Maya Mountains in the area, you can also find Caracol, the largest Mayan site found in the region, also the famous natural arch that you see in many calendars and postcards, Doyle?s Delight, the highest peak in Belize is also found in this area.?
But while everyone recognises its importance … the sheer size and density of the Chiquibul has made it difficult to manage. Currently the Forest Department is only able to maintain intermittent patrols in the area, making it a haven for illegal logging, hunting and xate extraction.
Rafael Manzanero
?I would say over the last ten years there have been incursions from Guatemalans coming in. It has increased, in fact if we record now, last year or the last three years on high peak season you can get up to a thousand Guatemalans operating in these forests and they not only go four kilometres within our borders, you can find them up to twelve or twenty kilometres inside of our border and the main entrance point is basically on the border with the Chiquibul.?
Wilbur Sabido, Chief Forest Officer
?The Forest Department as a government entity cannot manage protected areas by itself. We felt that management of protected areas is a collective responsibility that all protected areas stakeholders must bear and it must be shared.?
Taking on that challenge is the San Jose Succotz based Friends for Conservation and Development. F.C.D. has planned a three and a half year project to develop and implement a management plan not only for the Chiquibul, but the entire Maya Mountains Key Biodiversity Area. And to help in their efforts, the NGO received almost eight hundred thousand dollars through PACT?s large grant programme.
Rafael Manzanero
?This event today marks a major milestone since it signifies the management of one of the core areas in what we now know as the Chiquibul Maya Mountain Massif.?
Valdemar Andrade
?This initiative will include the support for the maintenance of the forest ecosystem, conserving biodiversity, stimulating economic, alternative and sustainable livelihoods, promoting public awareness, promoting financial sustainability, increasing protection through enforcement of rules and regulations, promoting monitoring programmes, simulating an integrated, coordinated and focussed collaboration between scientific research and management and strengthening cross border neighbour confidence building measures and cooperation with the technical and community levels.?
The task is an immense one, but the F.C.D. is not going at it alone.
Valdemar Andrade
?We expect that with our many alliances both from Belize and Guatemala, and other international partners, which include primarily the Critical Eco-systems Partnership Fund, we will be able to set in motion an active and vibrant management programme for the Chiquibul Forest.?
Wilbur Sabido
?The Chiquibul National Park shares its western border with Guatemala and it is from that perspective that we also need to share expertise, experience and even personnel. This cross-border collaboration is a proactive approach to curb the influx of people coming into Belize, to cut xate and other non-timbre forest products, to harvest timber and to poach.?
Francisco Moya, CONAP
?Translated: We are learning that nature has no boundaries; it does not respect political borders. Ecosystems and species, including human, have no limits.?
?The problems encountered in the Chiquibul Maya Mountains affect both countries. We cannot separate what is happening in Guatemala with what is happening in the Maya Mountains of Belize. As a result we can offer solutions that are bi-national in nature.?
The F.C.D. has already commenced its efforts in the Chiquibul. They have developed a bi-national work plan with Guatemala?s National Council of Protected Areas, and trained and employed five rangers, who will patrol the area along with the B.D.F. and Forest Department.
Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
The three and a half year project is estimated to cost one point eight million dollars. PACT supplied forty-three percent of the funds, while the remainder will come courtesy of the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund and The Nature Conservancy.
