In 1998 Fauna & Flora International drew on its Arcadia Fund to protect one of Central America’s last, unbroken stretches of tropical broadleaf forest - the Golden Stream Watershed. Named after the vast drainage basin on which it sits, the forest was under threat from industrial loggers, citrus cultivators and shrimp farmers.
Spanning much of southern Belize’s Toledo district, Golden Stream is home to at least 300 species of tree, 40% of Belize’s bird population and a diverse array of mammals, including threatened species such as jaguar and Baird’s tapir. Both the forest and the watershed are key components of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, one of the world’s largest conservation areas.
Fauna & Flora International moved quickly to secure land that linked the rugged Columbia River Forest Reserve in the Maya Mountains with barrier reefs and coastal mangroves on Belize’s east coast. The Golden Stream Corridor Preserve was born. Management of the preserve was transferred to a nascent local conservation group, the Ya’axché Conservation Trust, in accordance with Arcadia Fund principles.
Nearly 10 years later, the preserve is an integral part of Toledo’s landscape. The Ya’axché Conservation Trust receives support and guidance from Fauna & Flora International and is an important conservation ally in the region. Training has also been given to the Trust’s conservation rangers and community-based biological monitoring systems have been developed and implemented throughout the preserve.
Today, Fauna & Flora International is a key player in Belize’s conservation and development world. We work at the national level to influence and enhance natural resource management policy and practice and sit on the board of several groups that aim to enhance environmental education, community management and natural resource management in Belize. These include the Bladen Management Consortium, the Toledo Healthy Forest Initiative, the Belize Association of Private Protected Areas, as well as the Ya’axché Conservation Trust and other associations.
With funding from the Global Environmental Facility, we are now working with the Trust on an exciting new initiative to integrate an improved protected area and landscape management approach into conservation areas and community owned lands throughout southern Belize.
£50 or $100 could support an experienced community ranger on an FFI project for one month, enabling them to buy a new radio for field communications. This is an example of what your money could do. Please make a donation of however much you can afford.
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