This article was originally published on Mongabay.
- On Feb. 13, the government of Belize approved the 110-square-kilometer Belize northeastern biological corridor.
- The corridor aims to provide safe passage for wild animals like jaguars, pumas and Baird’s tapir to move freely between the Shipstern Nature Reserve and Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve in northern Belize.
- Private landowners have agreed to place their corridor-designated lands into a trust in perpetuity, with the lands to be managed as part of the protected area system for conservation purposes.
“Belize is set to establish one of the biggest biological corridors in Central America, connecting two nature reserves that are home to jaguars and pumas, among other wildlife.
The Belize northeastern biological corridor, approved by the government on Feb. 13, will span some 110 square kilometers (42 square miles) of forest, according to a press release from the Corozal Sustainable Future Initiative (CSFI), a conservation NGO in Belize. It aims to provide safe passage for species such as jaguars (Panthera onca), pumas (Puma concolor) and Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii) to move freely between the coastal dry forests of the Shipstern Nature Reserve and the tropical forests of the Freshwater Creek Forest Reserve.
“This corridor is highly important,” Heron Moreno, executive director of the CSFI, told Mongabay. “It will not only guarantee the long term survival of wildlife within the area but it will also contribute to the strengthening of the Belize Protected Areas System. Most importantly, it will serve to highlight the importance of Government, NGO and private partnership in conservation initiatives. This hereby paves the way and serves as a model for other similar initiatives to follow in Belize.”…”
Read on at: Mongabay.
