Belize’s Channel 5 News reports on threats to the Bladen Nature Reserve:
A fly-over of the Bladen Nature Reserve, bordering with Guatemala, provides a bird’s eye view of the rich vegetation of our tropical forests. The protected area, however, is being systematically plundered by those engaged in export of the lucrative xate and by poachers looking for exotic wildlife. But it’s not limited to those two threats; there is another even more serious risk looming from the proposed construction of a hydroelectric plant. News Five’s Isani Cayetano teamed up with Ya’axche Conservation for a reconnaissance flight and has this report.
The stretch of land in the northwest corner of the Toledo District, a hundred thousand acres comprising the Bladen Nature Reserve, is lush tropical woodland teeming with exotic wildlife and botany. The expansive acreage which sits on the edge of the Belize/Guatemala border is the most protected area in the country yet it remains under constant threat from poachers and developers both in and outside of its confines. For years this territory has been used for illegal hunting and harvesting. Despite joint efforts by conservationists and various government agencies incursion by xateros is unavoidable.
Today the Ya’axche Conservation Trust is flying over the area to determine the extent to which deforestation is taking place. The organization has teamed up with Light Hawk, an elite corps of pilots and environmentalists operating within Mesoamerica, to gather information from above.
Leading the mission is retired airline pilot David Cole.
David Cole, Pilot, Light Hawk
“The work we do is to help provide an aerial platform so that people on both sides of issues can see what that issue is from the aerial perspective and that will perhaps provide a tipping point. But as you know you can’t hide from the air what you can hide on the ground by putting a false front on something.”Although an above ground look proves the extent to which trees are being cleared trekking this vast spread also provides solid evidence that the Bladen Nature Reserve is under attack. On the forest floor lies the carcass of a curassow; hunted and killed for its colorful plumes.
Find out more in the full report for more information. You can get more information about the Bladen Reserve at southernbelize.com and at protectedplanet.net. (It’s good to see regional organisations contributing to Protected Planet, which was previously mentioned on Green Antilles a couple of months ago.) The Belize Botanic Gardens provide information about xate and why illegal xate harvesting has become a big problem for Belize.
[Photo: Chris H]
