Community members at the helm of rain forest protection
 

Park rangers practice capturing wildlife footprints.

By IXCHEL GRANADA

LA CEIBA - Pico Bonito National Park, located in the north coast in the city limits of La Ceiba, is a protected area consisting of over 100,000 hectares of rain forest and cloud forest. Seven different eco-systems exist within its borders and the park is home to over 275 species of birds, a variety of mammals such as jaguars, tapirs, deer, puma, white-faced monkeys and spider monkeys. The parks’ hydrological system feeds 17 main watersheds in the departments of Atlantida and Yoro. Within the parks’ borders nine mountains reach altitudes greater than 2,000 meters, while creating thousands of spectacular waterfalls and providing habitat for a tremendous diversity of eco-systems and wildlife, including endangered and nearly extinct flora and fauna. The many benefits provided by the protected eco-systems in the park include a supply of drinkable water, prevention of soil erosion, flood protection, and enormous opportunities for scientific investigation and eco-tourism.

The organization responsible for the supervision, protection, conservation and management of Pico Bonito National Park is known as The Foundation for Pico Bonito National Park (FUPNAPIB). FUPNAPIB along with co-sponsors; Project for BioDiversity Conservation in High Priority Zones (PROBAP), Regional University Center (CURLA) and the Rain forest Alliance hosted a workshop this past weekend which aims to create a more comprehensive inventory of the biological diversity which can be found in the park.

The workshop was held on 2,000 hectares of private property under the management of the Forestry Department at CURLA. “ The area acts as a research station and the hopes are that in the future the area will have the capacity to house 30 investigators at a time, which will further promote understanding of tropical eco-systems and the application of conservation practices. We want to see appropriate natural resource use and we want to offer sustainable rural development to improve the quality of life of the communities surrounding the park. This is the only way we will be able to save protected areas from agricultural and population pressures.” Gerardo Antonio Rodriguez, director, FUPNAPIB.

The workshops are geared towards the 32 park guards who are also community members from the surrounding areas. The park guards are trained in a variety of wildlife monitoring techniques such as; bird identification, capturing of wildlife footprints, identification of wildlife scat or feces to determine what species frequent the areas. “The objective of the monitor is to collect information which will allow us to see the changes that might take place in the future particularly as it relates to population pressures. This inventory very well may generate more detailed studies, such as how does habitat fragmentation effect the sub-population of spider monkeys,” Marco Tulio Lopez, Regional Technical Assistant, PROBAP.

Approximately once a month the guards will visit a series of transections along the biological corridor between Pico Bonito and Texiguat, another park located to the south of Pico Bonito. A base line of information will gradually be created and give strength to additional conservation efforts by creating a better understanding of the biological richness our lands host.

Although officially protected the park continues to be threatened by logging and highly damaging invasive agricultural practices. Park guards often confront fellow community members who are involved in poaching, illegal trafficking of flora and fauna and felling of trees. The park guards we spoke with had been threatened on various occasions and fear for their safety. This is not unusual in natural resource protection in poor nations.

Many Hondurans have lost their lives in environmental protection. Many of the park guards were formerly cattle ranchers or campesinos who advanced the agricultural boundaries into park boundaries. Now they are environmental leaders and commit themselves to protecting the area. ¨I wasn’t interested in forests as an agronomist. But I’ve come to appreciate all the bounty that this protected area provides us with and I’d like to see my neighbors improve their quality of life by protecting the source; the forests.” Anonymous Park Guard, Pico Bonito.