Baseline Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts of Tourism Activity in Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve and Chiquibul Forest Reserve Many thanks to: Members of the Forest Department Members of the Cayo Tour Guide Association Tour Guides Tour Operators Hotels and Lodges Friends for Conservation and Development Chris Minty Sam Bridgewater For their input into this analysis Zoe and Paul Walker, Wildtracks, Belize [email protected] March, 2007 Contents Introduction 1 Physical and Ecoregional Characteristics 3 Summary of Tourism Activities 10 Summary of Non-Tourism Activities 13 A. The Project Area 15 1. Overview of Protected Areas 19 Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve 19 Chiquibul Forest Reserve 21 Current Tourism Sites 22 2. Overview of Ecosystems 27 3. Overview of Species of Concern of Mountain Pine Ridge 37 Endemic Species 37 Species of Concern 38 Other Species 41 Population Trends 46 4. Waste Disposal 47 Human Waste 47 Solid Waste 48 5. Water Quality 50 6. Air Quality 54 7. Visitor Number and Trends 56 Visitor Numbers and Seasonal Flow 56 8. Visitor Experience 60 9. Local Communities 61 10. Threats to Human Health and Safety 63 11. Other Identified Issues 65 B. Major environmental issues: Matrix 76 C. Proposed Indicators 81 Annexes Annex One: Baseline Annex Two: Monitoring Manual Tables Table 1 Protected Area Categories, NPAPSP 1 Table 2 Focal Areas 3 Table 3 Tourism Sites 10 Table 4 Lodges within the Mountain Pine Ridge area 11 Table 5 A Sample of Tour Operators using Mountain Pine Ridge FR / Chiquibul 12 FR Table 6 Non Tourism Activities 13 Table 7 Protected Areas of the Project Area 16 Table 8 Protected Areas containing other sites 16 Table 9 Overview of Current Facilities at Tourism Sites in Mountain Pine Ridge 26 Forest Reserve (January, 2007) Table 10 Under-represented Ecosystems in Belize 31 Table 11 Ecosystems of the Project Area – Extent 32 Table 12 Ecosystems of the Project Area – Description, Location and Identified 33 Threats Table 13 Species of Concern - Mountain Pine Ridge 43 Table 14 Status of Species of Concern - Mountain Pine Ridge / Chiquibul Forest 44 Reserves Table 15 Sewage Disposal in the Project Area 47 Table 16 Solid Waste Disposal 48 Table 17 Results of Site Assessment for Litter (January, 2007) 49 Table 18 Summary of Water Quality Guidelines 51 Table 19 Water Quality Data from Macal and Rio On, downstream of project area, 2005 52 Table 20 Summary of Air Pollution Baseline (January, 2007) 54 Table 21 Summary of Noise Pollution (January, 2007) 55 Table 22 Tourism Statistics for Project Area 56 Table 23 Summary of Site Use (January 2007) 58 Table 24 Visitor Profile for Mountain Pine Ridge 59 Table 25 Summary of Visitor Days for Las Cuevas 59 Table 26 Principal Communities of the Project Area 61 Table 27 Total numbers of Accident for the last 6 months, for ten tour guides 63 Table 28 Management Characteristics of the Project Area 71 Table 29 Forest Resource Planning and Management Programme: Goals and 72 Objectives for Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve, 2006 - 2007 Table 30 Forest Department Workplan Objectives 73 Table 31 Legislation relevant to protection of the Mountain Pine Ridge / Chiquibul 74 Forest Reserves Table 32 Matrix of Major Environmental Issues 77 Maps Map 1 General Location of Project Area 2 Map 2 Elevation Map of Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve 4 Map 3 Elevation Map of Chiquibul Forest Reserve 5 Map 4 Hydrology of the Project Area and Belize River Watershed within Belize 7 Map 5 Tourism Sites of Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve 17 Map 6 Tourism Sites of Chiquibul Forest Reserve 18 Map 7 The Maya Mountain Massif 20 Map 8 Broad Ecosystems of the Project Area 28 Map 9 Ecosystems of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve 29 Map 10 Ecosystems of the Chiquibul Forest Reserve 30 Map 11 British Forces Training Area in Chiquibul Forest Reserve 70 Photographs Photograph 1 Fast flowing waterfalls – one of the components of the hydrology of the 6 Mountain Pine Ridge the Mountain Pine Ridge Photograph 2 Petén-Veracruz Moist Forest 9 Photograph 3 Belizean Pine Forest 9 Photograph 4 Effects of the Southern Pine Bark Beetle on Needle-leaved Forest. Orchid 27 Cascade Photograph 5 Dalechampia schippii 37 Photograph 6 Morelet’s Treefrog (Agalychnis moreletii) – Caracol aguada 39 Photograph 7 Yucatan Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta pigra) 39 Photograph 8 Chac’s Rainfrog (Caugastor chac), Rio Frio Caves 40 Photograph 9 Sundew 42 Photograph 10 Sobralia macrantha 42 Photograph 11 Schippia concolor 42 Photograph 12 Big Rock Falls, a favoured swimming location for active visitors to Mountain 60 Pine Ridge Photograph 13 Caracol 66 Photograph 14 Las Cuevas 66 Photograph 15 Sign advising on entry to military training areas 68 Figures Figure 1 Ecoregion Classification for Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve 8 Figure 2 Tour Operators: An example of Responsible Travel 14 Figure 3 Annual visitation to the project area between 1996 and 2005 57 Figure 4 Annual non-cruise ship visitation to between 1998 and 2005 57 Figure 5 Average monthly visitation to the project area between 1996 and 2005 58 References 106 Final Draft - Best Practices – Baseline Analysis of Tourism Impacts Baseline Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts of Tourism Activity in the Mountain Pine Ridge and the Chiquibul Forest Reserves Introduction Tourism has fast become one of the major industries in Belize, contributing approximately 16% towards the gross domestic product in 2004. It is also one of the main employers, estimated to provide employment for one in four people (BTB, 2005). The major attractions for visitors are the cultural and natural resources, both marine and terrestrial. Included in these attractions are the waterfalls and wide open vistas of the globally significant Mountain Pine Ridge, and the biodiversity-rich matrix of tropical broadleaved forests in the Chiquibul. This document forms part of Programme for Belize’s strategy for mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in the tourism industry in Belize through the development and dissemination of ecosystem-specific best practices for sustainable tourism. The PfB project seeks to achieve this by working with tourism operations to conserve biodiversity in Belize, creating a supply of sustainable tourism services that are linked with the market demand for sustainable tourism. The goal of this consultancy is to provide baseline information on the ecosystems and human impacts, measuring and assessing the use and impact of tourism within the Mountain Pine Ridge and Chiquibul Forest Reserves. There is a special focus on tourism, to determine whether or not tourists have negative and / or positive impacts on these ecosystems and the potential impacts of tourism in the future. It also considers whether tour providers show responsible environmental and social practices. The consultancy identifies and develops indicators, and the protocols to be used to monitor these indicators over time, in comparison with the baseline, as a part of an integrated Monitoring and Evaluation system. The need for monitoring and evaluation, and the subsequent implementation of specific strategies and actions to mitigate identified negative impacts, is critical if tourism use of the two target areas – the Mountain Pine Ridge and Chiquibul Forest Reserves - is to be environmentally sustainable. To be effective, the monitoring framework needs to be closely linked with the environmental management of the area, and with the objectives and activities of the tourism stakeholders. Target Area Mountain Pine Ridge and Chiquibul are two of the seventeen Table 1: Protected Area Forest Reserves within the National Protected Areas System Categories, NPAPSP of Belize. Of the seven different protected area categories Forest Reserve (Table 1), Forest Reserves are the only national National Park management category established for extractive use, with Natural Monument many being managed for timber extraction. Both lie on the Wildlife Sanctuary Maya Mountain Plateau in Cayo District, in the west of Belize Nature Reserve (Map 1). A third protected area – Thousand Foot Falls Marine Reserve Natural Monument, is also included within the target area as a management unit of Mountain Pine Ridge, as is Big Rock Archaeological Reserve Falls, a site that many tour guides are starting to incorporate in their Mountain Pine Ridge itineraries, located on the border of Eligio Panti National Park. Wildtracks 1 Final Draft - Best Practices – Baseline Analysis of Tourism Impacts Map One: General Location of Project Area A. Lloyd / Wildtracks See: Metadata Wildtracks 2 Final Draft - Best Practices – Baseline Analysis of Tourism Impacts The project area has been identified as part of an ecoregional priority under several conservation planning initiatives, falling within the Conservation International Key Biodiversity Area, and being highlighted as one of The Nature Conservancy’s ecoregional priority areas – the Maya Mountain Massif. Report Layout The Introduction contains a summary of the Physical and Ecoregional Characteristics, Tourism and Non- Table 2: Focal Areas Tourism Activities within the project area. 1. Overview of Protected Areas 2. Ecosystems To avoid repetition, the main body of the report, Section 3. Species of Concern A (The Project Area), contains eleven focal areas being 4. Waste Disposal considered within the baseline analysis (Table 2), each 5. Water Quality with a description of the Current Status of the focal area, 6. Air Quality a summary of the Baseline Assessment conducted in 7. Visitor Numbers and Trends 2006, and Recommendations for ways in which the 8. Visitor Experience protected area managers and the tourism sector can use 9. Local Communities Best Practices to reduce or prevent future impacts. 10. Human Health 11. Other Issues Section B (Analysis of Major Environmental Issues) seeks to summarize the assessment results and recommendations highlighted in the previous section Section C presents the Proposed Indicators, developed during the analysis, and refined following consultation with tour guides using the Mountain Pine Ridge / Chiquibul area.