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Within the National Protected
Areas System of Belize, only a few have management plans;
Aguas Turbias National Park (ATNP) is one of those parks
without a management plan. Declared in 1994 through
SI #44/94 with an area of approximately 8800 acres,
the ATNP has an important role to play in the trans-boundary
connectivity between Belize, Guatemala and Mexico in
the Selva Maya Priority Area of the Mesoamerican Biological
Corridor. Most recently, the ATNP has been selected
under the CCAD/AOPN regional initiative to receive grant
funding for the preparation of its management plan and
on-the-ground management activities. |
The ATNP is situated in the extreme north-eastern
corner of Belize where Belize, Mexico and Guatemala
meet. The area was traditionally covered in broadleaf
forest but the last decade has seen increased development
of the area, both from the Mexican and from the Belizean
side.
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In Belize the development consists primarily of large scale
cattle ranching and rice cultivation. From the Mexican side,
the pressure is mostly from small scale subsistence farming.
The Forest Department (FD), under its Protected Areas Program,
has seen it timely and necessary for a Rapid Ecological
Assessment (REA) to be made in preparation for the Management
Plan that is scheduled for completion in 2004. This partnership
between the MBC and CCAD/OAPN initiative is considered as
a strategic approach to park management. The REA will provide
biodata to be used in the management plan and also make
recommendations for management alternatives between the
FD, NGO's and neighboring communities.
The general objective of this RAE is to develop
biological, geological and climate data characterization
of the Aguas Turbias National Park and other relevant information
that will feed into the site’s Management Plan that
will be developed during 2004 with funds from Spain known
as the CCAD/AOPN initiative. The specific objectives of
this consultancy are the following:
review all existing literature on the ATNP; carry out a
baseline survey to provide information on the various flora
and fauna (including geology, vegetation, ecosystems, invertebrates,
fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, etc) in the
ATNP;
carry out consultations with NGO's and CBO's to get their
inputs or feedback on the characteristics of the ATNP and
management options.
Some map information already exists but the information
in this study will be used to verify (ground-truth) that
information and update these maps for use both in the final
report as well as for the national database. For example:
the ecosystems map for Belize (Meerman & Sabido: Central
American Ecosystems map: Belize, 2001) will be updated
using the data collected during this project.
Report now available: Final
REA Report December 2003 (pdf: 537 kb)
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