The Mayflower Bocawina National Park is located in the
Stann Creek district of Belize and has as its original attraction
the Mayflower Archaeological
Site. The recent declaration (SI 139 of 2001) of the
National Park with emphasis on community co-management has
widened the scope from Archaeology to environmental protection.
To acquire data for this CO-management, a Rapid Ecological
Assessment (REA) has been initiated and is being carried
out by a team of professionals under the direction of Jan
Meerman.
The main objectives of the REA are:
· To produce biophysical information necessary for
development of management plans and environmental impact
assessments.
· To produce data, reports, maps, lists, classifications,
descriptions, and threats identification for management,
educational, inventory and funding purposes.
· Generate baseline data for monitoring activities
in the Park.
· Contribute to the National inventory.
· Identify species that are in danger of becoming
extinct.
· Develop preliminary data sets for future use in
inventories that are more detailed and in ecological characteristics.
· Characterize natural communities, provide descriptions
listing key species and assess their importance for conservation.
· Associate animal communities with the vegetation
types they inhabit.
· Compare diversity among different subregions of
the site.
Methodology
and some pictures of survey
activities can be seen at following pages. One of the interesting
results is that an interesting "new" Heliconia
species has been discovered. Also an as yet undocumented
and invasive banana species
was identified.
The REA was completed
in early 2003. The final report was finished in May 2003.
Available as Adobe Acrobat files are the final
report (1,772 kb), coverpage,
and two reports (December
2002 + March
2003) of the bat surveys.
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