Green Antilles

The government of Belize has agreed to deploy more patrols to combat cross-border poaching in the country’s forest reserves:

The Cabinet and the National Security Council have both approved recommendations in an official paper submitted by the Ministry of Natural Resources in conjunction with Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD), calling for more security presence—larger and more frequent joint patrols—in the region of Belize’s treasured Chiquibul Forest.

The move is in response to exacerbating incursions into Belize by Guatemalan civilians who have been illegally logging millions of dollars worth of mahogany and cedar and extracting millions of dollars more in xate palm, as well as decimating the threatened scarlet macaws who have this rich, tropical forest as one of their last havens.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow confirmed to Amandala this evening that Government has agreed to larger and more frequent patrols.

Rafael Manzanero, FCD’s executive director, had made a public call last month for “more boots on the ground,” inside the Chiquibul.

FCD is the co-manager of the 264,003-acre Chiquibul National Park, which has also been under siege for illegal incursions.

Manzanero told us today that there are three functional observation posts and the only roaming patrol is at Tapir Camp.

He said that the hope is that the Ceibo Chico post, more south of the existing ones, would be established shortly. There is also a plan to establish two more patrol stations to help conserve the forest and its valuable resources, which include gold and the watersheds that feed water supply much of the country of Belize.

Read more in the complete article from Amandala News.

Note that the issue of Guatemalans poaching in Belizean forests is complicated by the long-standing territorial dispute between Guatemala and Belize, in which Guatemala lays claim to ownership of the greater portion of Belize’s land mass. Read more about the dispute and its implications for conservation in the journal article (embedded below) Belize-Guatemala territorial dispute and its implications for conservation:

Previous related posts on Green Antilles: Poachers pose a growing problem for conservation in Belize’s Bladen Nature Reserve and Nature reserve on Belize-Guatemala border threatened by poachers and hydro plant proposal.

[Photo: Neil Rogers via belizebiodiversity.com]

Conservation activists in Belize have petitioned the government to call a referendum on the issue of offshore drilling in Belize’s waters:

representatives of the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage handed over to the Office of Governor General, Sir Colville Young, in Belmopan, boxes of petitions bearing more than 18,000 signatures, putting “in train” the process intended to trigger a national referendum on offshore drilling early next year.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd, vice president of Oceana in Belize, one of over 40 Coalition members, said that Prime Minister Dean Barrow had made it clear in a recent correspondence from his secretary to Major Lloyd Jones, the former executive director of the Belize Tourism Industry Association – the current chair of the Coalition, that the Coalition ought to proceed with the referendum process, while the government would proceed with its work through the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.

That was the last straw, said Matura-Shepherd. She said that the Coalition was really hoping for dialogue—but that never happened.

With the petitions now delivered to the Governor General, said Matura-Shepherd, people have a legitimate expectation that the government will hold the referendum.

“We’re in time for March 7, 2011…” she added. “There is no excuse for the government not to hold the referendum.”

At his recent quarterly press conference, Barrow, in commenting on the Coalition’s delay to trigger the referendum, said that if the Coalition is waiting to time the referendum with the elections, that it may get “huffed.”

The proposed question submitted to the G-G for the national referendum is: “Do you agree to petroleum exploration and drilling offshore and in its protected areas?” Voters would be asked to reply “YES” or “NO”.

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Amandala has put two questions to our online poll on the issue of the referendum:

The first asked: Should the Government of Belize allow oil exploration inside protected areas? The final results signaled an 86% NO vote.

We also asked: Do you think that the proposed referendum on petroleum exploration should ask only about offshore drilling and not drilling in protected areas? In the final results, 64% said NO – the question should not just address offshore drilling, but should also address drilling inside protected areas.

Read more in the full article from Amandala News Online.

Previous related posts on Green Antilles: Opposition to oil exploration in Belize, Indigenous leaders object to oil exploration in protected areas of Belize, and Gulf spill causes concern about Caribbean oil operations.

Sea to Shore Alliance, through research, education, and conservation, works to improve the health and productivity of coastal environments for the endangered species and human livelihoods that depend on them.

Belize has the highest known population of endangered Antillean manatees in the world. In 1997, when Dr. James A. Powell began his work in this remarkable country, poaching was the greatest threat to manatees. Through education and training, Dr. Powell and his collaborators, including U.S. Geological Survey, reduced poaching incidents to nearly zero. Now rapid coastal development threatens their survival. Sea to Shore Alliance works to provide the Belizean government the data, expertise, and scientific exchange needed to establish sanctuaries, speed zones, and other actions to help ensure the survival of manatees.

Via Repeating Islands comes news of the success so far of the Coral Reef Alliance‘s mangrove reforestation project in San Pedro, Belize:

CORAL’s (Coral Reef Alliance) mangrove reforestation project in San Pedro, Belize is thriving. Recent monitoring reports reveal that ninety percent of the mangroves planted by the local community have survived—a true testament to the effectiveness of the CORAL reforestation method.

The method used is the Riley Encased Methodology (REM), an innovative planting technique that dramatically increases seedling success. It was developed by Bob Riley of Mangrove.org. REM has radically transformed the ability to mitigate ecological degradation and increase the biodiversity as-well-as resilience of coastal ecosystems. Given the success of the project so far, CORAL is preparing to plant additional mangrove seedlings in Boca del Rio Park this winter. Part of these successful efforts have included organizing educational summer camps for children in order to prepare the younger generations to be aware of the environment and to learn how to protect it.

Mangroves act as feeding and nursery grounds for approximately 74 species of fish and 178 bird species. They also provide habitat for many species of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. Belize is home to 4 different species of mangrove: the red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), the black mangrove (Avicennia germinans), the white mangrove (Laguncalaria racemosa), and the buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus). The red mangrove is most often found along the water on cayes and waterways and is easily identified by the long prop roots that support the plant. The black mangrove is usually found farther away from the water’s edge and can be recognized by the small protrusions called pneumatophores that encircle the base of the tree on the ground. These pneumatophores help to facilitate gas exchange as do the long prop roots found on the red mangroves. The white mangrove and buttonwood species are generally located even further away from the edge of the water.

See the original article for more information. Also of interest, from the Belize Mangrove Conservation Network, slides from a recent presentation about mangrove cover change across Belize between 1980-2010.

Previously on Green Antilles: Mangrove vulnerability and resilience in Belize and Mangrove habitat creation in Ambergris Caye, Belize.

[Image: via Belize Mangrove Conservation Network]

Cross-border poachers continue to infringe on the boundaries of Belize’s Bladen Nature Reserve:

The Bladen Nature Reserve, comprising nearly 100,000 acres of prized natural forest in southern Belize, is described as “the crown jewel of Belize’s protected areas.” Its status is so high among the nation’s protected areas that by law, it is ascribed the greatest level of preservation; and the area is reserved only for the work of scientists and other researchers. Although that is what the Laws of Belize say; the Ya’axche Conservation Trust (YCT), who co-manages the reserve, has again found evidence of illegal harvesting of the native xaté palm, presumably by Guatemalans who continue to come unchecked across the Belize-Guatemala border, to set up their working camps in the area.

The most recent camp was found 20 kilometers or 12.4 miles inside Belizean territory, well inside the Bladen. The Guatemalans left food: rice and flour, footwear, clothes and cans of Super Cola, a soft drink common in Guatemala.

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The [YCT] reports that, “The camp was discovered during a 10-day research expedition, funded by PACT [Protected Areas Conservation Trust], which was intended to help the managers (Ya’axche Conservation Trust) get a better picture of the natural value of the previously undisturbed area of Snake Creek.”

[YCT’s Programme Manager Bartolo Teul] told Amandala that although their patrols are not frequent, when they do go, they would find evidence of xatéro activity.

He said they are requesting more frequent security patrols of the area.

See the full article from Amandala Online for more.

Previously on Green Antilles Nature reserve on Belize-Guatemala border threatened by poachers and hydro plant proposal.

[Photo: Chris H]

This video features efforts underway by WWF and partners to promote mangrove protection as a means of climate resilience building in Belize.

See also this video: Mangroves in Belize.

And, previously on Green Antilles, Mangrove habitat creation in Ambergris Caye, Beliz and Mangrove vulnerability and resilience in Belize.

Research carried out in Belize suggests that although marine protected areas are good for some fish, they might not have any significant beneficial impact on coral health:

Marine reserves help fish populations but do nothing to safeguard coral, a study has found.

Scientists analysed surveys of 87 reefs both inside and outside Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve in Belize.

The results failed to show that protection within a reserve improved coral cover, colony size, or the abundance of juvenile corals.

Instead, US researchers documented declines in the coral community both within and outside the marine reserve.

Shifts were seen from large reef-building species to small, more localised species, reflecting a general pattern seen in the Caribbean.

Study leader Dr Brittany Huntington, from the University of Miami, said: “We had hoped to find evidence of reserve protection benefiting the coral community as well as the fish community at Glover’s Atoll. Unfortunately, the coral communities on protected reefs were in no better condition than the fished reefs.”

Herbivorous fish populations and rates of macroalgae, or seaweed, growth were similar on protected and unprotected reefs. This could help explain why the reserve coral is not faring better, the scientists believe.

“The macroalgae is faster growing than corals, dominating the available free space on the reef and impeding coral growth and survival,” said Dr Huntington.

“Without greater numbers of herbivorous fishes in the reserve to consume the macroalgae that is dominating these reefs, corals have little chance at recovery.”

The findings are published in the journal Coral Reefs.

Source: The UK Press Association via Google News. See also this report from BYM Marine Environment News. The abstract from the journal article itself is quoted below:

The ability of reserves to replenish fish stocks is relatively well documented, but the evidence of their ability to induce positive effects on benthic communities remains inconclusive. Here, we test whether 10 years of reserve designation have translated into positive effects on coral communities in Glover’s Reef, Belize. Surveys of 87 patch reefs inside and outside the reserve revealed no clear indication of reserve implementation benefitting coral cover, coral colony size, or abundance of juvenile corals. Furthermore, massive broadcasting coral species exhibited greater losses over time than their smaller-sized counterparts across all sites, suggesting that local management actions have not alleviated the regional trend of high mortality for these species. We detected no difference in herbivorous fish abundances or macroalgal cover between reserve and fished sites, providing a potential explanation for the lack of cascading positive effects on the coral community. We conclude that patterns of regional coral decline are evident at Glover’s Reef, including a shift in dominance from broadcasting species to brooding species and declines in mean colony size. Our findings suggest that regional stressors are overwhelming local management efforts and that additional strategies are required to improve local coral condition.

[Photo via: World Resources Institute]