2008 Rain Forest Rescue Report

Integrating Nature and Civilization

In our efforts to save the world’s rain forests, preserving a traditional way of life is tied to protecting an environment rich in natural resources. Member support of our collaborative work with The Nature Conservancy resulted in significant progress in the Maya Forest this past year. Throughout Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, this rain forest abounds with activity.

Since 1992 balancing people’s needs with conserving this rare land has yielded positive changes in many practices. The clear-cutting of forests is diminishing as we encourage sustainable industries for the native Maya who make these precious forests their home. And protecting habitat for the rare creatures that live in this singular space will benefit all the area’s life forms.

Maya Forest

In a forest that covers more than 13 million acres of Central America, our conservation work helps support the multiple life forms that depend upon one another. The Maya are blending tradition with progressive methods. Rural communities continue to harvest milpa—native plants like squash, corn, and beans—just as their ancestors did. They are also learning techniques to improve management of a sustainable timber industry. While they seek a balance of old and new, responsible stewarding of nature’s gifts has emerged as a consistently reliable approach.

Native Maya carry harvested shade-grown coffee beans from a private farm in the Finca Los Tarrales nature reserve, prepared to market them internationally for a fair price. Photo © Susan G. Ellis.

With more than 2.4 billion square feet of rain forest now preserved, we see the mark of hundreds of thousands of concerned global citizens in this glorious domain.

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A Plan for the Future

Partners Discover Advantages in Collaboration

The three primary achievements that highlighted the past year’s projects in the Maya Forest are all marked by shared purpose and innovation:

• The comprehensive Maya Forest Ecoregional Plan, a collection of related strategies compiled by a coalition of academic scientists, federal governments, and nonprofit organizations.
• Creating a sustainable forestry model in Mexico’s Calakmul Biosphere Reserve with the support of local communities, called ejidos.
• Implementing forest management activities in Belize designed to enhance park management while engaging the community.

The plan’s conservation infrastructure promotes agricultural sustainability and helps diversify an ongoing economic base. It also implements prevention practices to protect the region’s lush biodiversity. By creating a healthier mix of tree species in the forest and developing ecotourism to strengthen the economic structure, the plan supports the distinct needs of people, wildlife, and the majestic woodlands themselves.

Our Rain Forest Rescue program is building local and regional capacity throughout the region. Indigenous people are replacing obsolete agricultural methods with viable economic alternatives, such as shade-grown organic coffee. By helping elevate native Maya’s income through fair wages that support communities’ economies and institutions like their schools, the process protects a domain that holds much promise for our world. As it curbs the loss of forest cover, the rain forest’s trees will continue to provide cleaner air for our planet—even as its rare plants provide patients a source of hope and new medical treatments.

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Developing Mexico’s Culture through New Economic Models

Changing Terrains of the Land and the Mind

Far south in Mexico’s Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, people are discovering the benefits of creating a sustainable economic structure as part of their larger conservation process.

Unsustainable logging practices in many small communities, known as ejidos, have historically strained the forest cover. Other communities, after clearing forests for farming, have relied on outdated agricultural techniques that yield low results and a devastating impact on the health of the Earth’s environment.

Through the Rain Forest Rescue program, the coalition has introduced new economic models that motivate local inhabitants to increase the land’s long-term productivity. Offering sound options like agroforestry and ecotourism, the coalition is inspiring people to act in a way that better sustains both their families and the very land on which they live.

One community, an ejido known as 20 de Noviembre, has already profited. They have learned how to promote and sell sustainably produced commodities. This community is also planting younger trees in an older forested region to increase annual growth rates and improve the forest’s composition. Introducing new equipment appropriate to environmentally conscientious harvesting in today’s forests is replacing destructive practices that were used to harvest massive, old-growth mahogany logs.

Gathering additional data also helps us shape more effective sustainability strategies. This coming year, a monitoring system will examine the health of two key animal and plant species in the Calakmul Reserve in different conditions. The most effective practices that 20 de Noviembre has used will be applied in another ejido—eventually to spread among the 125 forest communities that exist there.

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Opportunities Disguised as Needs

Local People Acquire New Skills in Response

Like good forest guides, members of Conhuas, another Mexican ejido, are reading the signs of change. An influx of tourists to this picturesque area has generated the need for additional services, so the Rain Forest Rescue program is providing training to young people from Conhuas to become nature guides.

These youth have studied English, birding, history and archeology and are available to work for local hotels and tours. They then share their newly acquired appreciation of the natural world with the world citizens who visit. And, since ecotourism is a growing industry, training local people to respond means continued employment for many.

Organized action is transforming another threat into promise. Regional wildfires often result from burning off growth to prepare the land for tilling. When fires rage out of control, they put the forest—the very resource that sustains a community—at risk.

A fire management plan has gained broad support from federal, state and municipal authorities plus the nature reserve staff and local people. Now that a command and communication center and several fire brigades exist, training has begun in three separate communities chosen because of their locations within the reserve.

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Endangered Species Signals Hope in Belize

Harpy Eaglet’s Appearance Indicates Progress for Many Species

With the confirmed sighting of Belize’s first harpy eagle in the Bladen Nature Reserve three years ago, long-term prospects for some of the world’s most dignified creatures and their habitat has improved—through Arbor Day Foundation supporters’ continued assistance.

Especially significant was the young raptor’s age: the 2-year-old’s presence suggested an active nest. But, until coalition partners caught sight of two more adult eagles inspecting sites for a new nest in April 2008, this was simply an unconfirmed dream. Because the species was once thought to have disappeared, these sightings hint at the Bladen reserve’s ability to provide safe refuge for many creatures.

The harpy eagle shares its habitat with large predators, animals surprisingly susceptible to the forces of human beings on their environment. The sizeable reserve must afford them adequate protection and habitat diversity if they are to reproduce. The original sighting has expanded our reach, taking us into Belize’s Maya Mountains Massif and effectively doubling our range of potential impact.

One coalition partner, Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education (BFREE), now enters data from tracking harpy eagle nests into a mapping database. And, just as Mexican youth have been trained as guides, residents near Bladen will gain avian field skills to monitor other bird species. With their new education, they will help their communities learn how a dynamic forest habitat serves these rare creatures.

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Protecting Native History as Well as Natural Resources

Keeping Archeological Ruins and Wild Animals Secure

Within the Maya Mountains Massif lies a national park not far from Guatemala: the Chiquibul National Park. There thousands of tourists arrive annually to view Maya ruins, archeological relics offering clues of a remarkably advanced civilization that disappeared some thirteen centuries ago.

The area was equally rich in tropical animals: tapirs, ocelots, and ocellated turkeys. But looters have robbed the terrain of both wild creatures and archeological artifacts to sell for profit. Belize’s combined population is equal to that of some American cities, with only 300,000 citizens. It lacks the resources to address such illegal activities, even the highway robberies of tourists who offer economic benefit.

So, Rain Forest Rescue coalition partners have agreed with the Belize government to manage the Chiquibul National Park. While raising awareness of environmental concerns in local communities, we will boost the ground patrols that are already discouraging illegal activities. The dignity of these Maya treasures, both natural and cultural, is reflected in that increased vigilance.

Other activities include consolidating the management of a dozen reserves and assessing threats and needs. Surrounding the Bladen Nature Reserve, the Chiquibul National Park, and the Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary are eight forest reserves. There we are measuring how to best protect the region’s biodiversity by improving sustainable forestry practices to support the people living in these areas.

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Guatemala’s Verdant Jungles Host More Than Threats

People Are Learning through New Regional Developments

Guatemala’s once-beautiful tropical jungle, punctuated by ancient Maya temples cresting above the rain forest canopy, has given way to settlers from all over the country. In the past 20 years, newly relocated Guatemalans have splintered the forest’s landscape in the northern Petén region. Rising damage, left unchecked, will result in needless ecological damage.

Reaching far into the northern regions of these rain forests, Sierra del Lacandón National Park is drier than most. When colonists from surrounding communities slash and burn to clear land for farming, the risk to Sierra del Lancandón’s ecosystems intensifies dramatically. Three basic fire management steps hold the key to reducing this risk.

Prevention begins with Rain Forest Rescue education, addressing both youth and adults in appropriate forums. Recently trained members of the Guatemalan army—200 of them making up needed fire brigades—are prepared to respond with fire suppression. And, because they are equipped to monitor fires, they can rapidly disperse firefighters to contain flames before they blaze uncontrollably.

As these striking regions attract tourists, they also hold an opportunity to safeguard their own assets. Collecting user fees from touring enthusiasts who enjoy bird-watching, hiking, and other recreational activities helps offset the cost of protecting the rain forest. More, it will awaken in visitors an awareness of the responsibility we all share in protecting our natural world.

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