Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TheNationalProtectedAreasCouncil(CONAP)istheentitychargedwithadministering
Guatemala'sprotectedareas.Itwascreatedin1990,alongwiththeNationalEnvironmental
Commission (CONAMA), which oversees broader environmental matters and was re-
placed in 2000 by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN).
CONAP has been historically underfunded and understaffed, leaving few resources with
whichtoprotectvastareasoflandfrominvasion.Privateconservationgroupshavestepped
in to assist CONAP in its mandate and there are now several parks coadministered or
primarily administered by private organizations. A specially trained policeforce began
operating in Guatemala's protected areas in 2005, particularly in the Maya Biosphere
Reserve, aided by M-16s and AK-47sto combat well-armed timber and wildlife poachers.
All the parks have at least rudimentary ranger stations. In an ongoing effort to attract more
park visitation, many have excellent facilities for guest accommodations and well-marked
trails.
Biosphere Reserves
Privately managed by conservation group Defensores de la Naturaleza,
Sierra de las Mi-
nas Biosphere Reserve
isavast,583,000-acremountainparkencompassingadiversevari-
ety of ecosystems, including cloud forests harboring several species of endemic conifers,
as well as tropical moist and rainforests. The peaks of Sierra de las Minas surpass 3,000
meters (9,800 feet) in elevation and are home to healthy populations of quetzals and jag-
uars, among other exotic animals. Sixty-two permanent streams have their source in the
upperslopesofthebiospherereserve,makingitanimportantwatershedsupplyingtheMot-
agua and Polochic Rivers. Together with the adjacent Bocas del Polochic Wildlife Refuge,
the parks account for 80 percent of Guatemala's biodiversity.
The four-million-acre
Maya Biosphere Reserve
is composed of Tikal National Park,
Laguna del Tigre National Park, Mirador-Dos Lagunas-Rio Azul National Park, Sierra del
LacandónNationalPark,BiotopoElZotz-SanMiguelLaPalotada,Yaxhá-Nakum-Naranjo
Natural Monument, and multiple-use and buffer zones. This large swath of land encom-
passes roughly a third of the Petén department and is Guatemala's last hope for preserving
a sizable part of the Petén forests. Contiguous with large parks in neighboring Mexico and
Belize, it is part of the largest protected tropical forest in Mesoamerica. The various parks
areprotected,onpaperatleast,fromallhumanactivity,thoughasizablemultiple-use zone
exists in large areas of the park, permitting sustainable extraction of forest products such
as
xate
palm and chicle, oil drilling (present before the park's creation), and community
forestry concessions. Standing between the core zones and the deforestation characterizing
much of the rest of Petén is an ever-shrinking buffer zone increasingly porous to the ad-
vanceoftheagricultural frontier.Theindividualparksmakingupthebiospherereserveare
covered here in their respective sections.
