Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – Management Plan 2009-2014 Management Plan Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary 2009 – 2014 DRAFT Wildtracks, 2008 Wildtracks, 2008 0 Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – Management Plan 2009-2014 Wildtracks, 2008 1 Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – Management Plan 2009-2014 Contents Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background and Context 1 1.2 Purpose and Scope of Plan 1 2. Current Status 3 2.1 Location 3 2.2 Regional Context 6 2.3 National Context 9 2.3.1 Legal and Policy Framework 9 2.3.2 Land Tenure 11 2.3.3 Evaluation of Protected Area 12 2.3.4 Socio-Economic Context 16 2.4 Physical Environment of Management Area 24 2.4.1 Climate 24 2.4.2 Geology 26 2.4.3 Soils 26 2.4.4 Hydrology 29 2.5 Biodiversity of Management Area 32 2.5.1 Ecosystems 32 2.5.2 Flora 39 2.5.3 Fauna 39 2.5.4 Past and Present Research 46 2.6 Cultural and Socio-Economic Values of Management Area 47 2.6.1 Community and Stakeholder Use 47 2.6.2 Archaeological Sites 47 2.6.3 Recreation and Tourism Use 47 2.6.4 Other Economic Use 48 2.6.5 Education Use 48 Wildtracks, 2008 2 Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – Management Plan 2009-2014 3. Conservation Planning 49 3.1 Conservation Targets 49 3.2 Threats to Biodiversity 56 3.3 Strategies to reduce Threats 58 4. Management Planning 65 4.1 Management and Organizational Background 65 4.2 Review of Previous Management Effectiveness 66 4.3 Management Goal 69 4.4 Management Strategies 70 4.4.1 Management Constraints and Limitations 70 4.4.2 Management Zones 70 4.4.3 Limits of Acceptable Change 71 4.5 Management Programmes and Objectives 73 4.5.1 Natural Resource Management Programme 4.5.2 Research and Monitoring Programme 4.5.3 Community Participation Programme 4.5.4 Public Use Programme 4.5.5 Infrastructure Management Programme 4.5.6 Administrative Programme 4.6 Monitoring and Review 119 4.7 Timeline 122 4.8 Financing 125 Annex 1: Plant species list Annex 2: Herpetological species list Annex 3: Summary Document Eco-cultural Tourism Symposium for Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary Indigenous Communities Annex 4: AWS Workshop report Wildtracks, 2008 3 Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – Management Plan 2009-2014 Acknowledgments The Consulting Team (Paul and Zoe Walker and Bartolo Teul) would like to aknowledge the assistance and input of the following people. The development of this Management Plan relied heavily on the participation of all key stakeholders of Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – we would like to thank all of those community participants who provided input during the series of workshops, individual interviews, and community surveys, ensuring that this plan reflects their vision. It is also important to recognize the contribution of Forest Department (particularly Hannah St. Luce and Saul Cruz), as well as Tino Pop, the Aguacaliente Management Team coordinator and Michael Norbeck (Peace Corps volunteer) for their invaluable inputs and assistance. Thanks also go to Kate Lloyd, who assisted with the drafting of the Plan, and Adam Lloyd, for the GIS mapping and input. Plan Facilitated By: Zoe and Paul Walker, Wildtracks, Belize December, 2008 Wildtracks, 2008 0 Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – Management Plan 2009-2014 1. Introduction Background and Context Belize is recognized as having some of the least impacted protected areas in the region. One of these, Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary, is situated on the southern coastal plain and covers a 5,492 acres mosaic of wetlands, swamp forest and karstic hills. It was established as a Wildlife Sanctuary through Statutory Instrument 87 of 1998, under the National Parks System Act of 1981, in recognition of both its importance as a wetland floodwater sink in times of storm events, as a natural resource for local fishermen, and for its importance to waterbirds. Aguacaliente is managed under the Forest Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, with a co- management agreement signed in 2006 between the Forest Department and Aguacliente Management Team, a community based non-governmental organization comprised of representatives from each of the stakeholder communities. The Wildlife Sanctuary is considered to be equivalent to an IUCN Category IV area – a Habitat/Species Management Area, with management targeted at conservation through management intervention (IUCN, 1994). The Wildlife Sanctuary was highlighted as a priority area under the Directory of Belizean Protected Areas and Sites of Nature Conservation Interest (Zisman, 1996), and listed as being extremely important for wetland birds in an assessment of waterbirds in Belize (Miller and Miller: 2006). It is considered an important component of Belize’s national protected areas system, ranking within the top three protected areas in the priority ranking conducted under the National Protected Area Policy and System Plan project (NPAPSP, 2005). It is the only major inland wetland in southern Belize, protecting both feeding and nesting resources of many species of wetland birds, including a nesting colony of 200 pairs of American woodstork (Meerman et. al., 2006). The Wildlife Sanctuary also protects representative examples of two ecosystems, “Swamp grassland without trees or shrubs” and “Tropical evergreen broad-leaved lowland swamp forest, Aguacaliente variant”, which occur only in Aguacaliente. Purpose and Scope of Plan The management of Aguacaliente is guided by its categorization as a Wildlife Sanctuary (under the National Parks System Act, 1982), being set aside to: “ protect nationally significant species, biotic communities or physical features” This is the first management plan for the Wildlife Sanctuary, and seeks to protect the resources of the reserve while exploring options for economic benefit through sustainable fishing and tourism. It has been developed with the participatory input of the Aguacaliente Management Team and the stakeholder communities adjacent to the protected area (Laguna, Jordan, Blue Creek, Yemeri Grove, Dump, Mafredi, San Antonio, Big Falls, San Marcos, and Silver Creek ), through a series of meetings, workshops and interviews with community members, and input from the tourism sector. This is in line with national and international recommendations that recognize the following premises(Beltran, 2000): “Protected areas will survive only if they are seen to be of value…to the nation as a whole, and to local people inparticular Wildtracks, 2008 1 Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – Management Plan 2009-2014 Government and protected area managers should incorporate customary resource use and indigenous land tenure, as well as control systems, as a means of enhancing biodiversity conservation Knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples have much to contribute to to the management of protected areas” This has led to the development of a number of key concepts, contained in the principles adopted by IUCN and WWF: . Compatibility between protected area objectives and those of indigenous and traditional peoples . Rights of traditional peoples to the traditional use of their lands and resources . Recognition of the decision making institutions and mechanisms of indigenous and traditional peoples . Access of indigenous peoples to the benefits associated with protected areas Fernandez-Baca et. al., 2007 This management plan incorporates these concepts, seeking to increase community participation in management decisions, to promote ownership and sustainable management of the resources, whilst seeking to align this with the national framework for protected areas. The document follows the National Management Plan Framework required by the National Protected Area Policy and System Plan (NPAPSP, 2006), and includes general information on the physical and biological attributes of the protected area, documents the current uses and management problems, defines the goals and objectives, summarizes conservation planning outputs, outlines specific management programmes, including a preliminary zoning plan, sets in place the means for measuring effectiveness of implementation, and recommends an implementation schedule. The management plan, submitted to Forest Department, is designed to guide the management of the Wildlife Sanctuary through the next five years, providing a framework for both broad management activities as well as more specific research and monitoring activities. The management programmes are based on the best available data and scientific knowledge, with the integration of information from the Rapid Ecological Assessment, the conservation planning workshops, and community review. Operational plans will be developed on an annual basis by the Aguacaliente Management Team, based on the framework provided by this management plan, and an annual review of implementation success will allow for adaptive management over the five year period. Wildtracks, 2008 2 Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary – Management Plan 2009-2014 2. Current Status 2.1 Location Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the Central American country of Belize - 8,867 sq. miles (22,966 sq. kilometres) of tropical forest, savannah, mangrove, and wetlands, with a population of approximately 301,270 (CIA, 2008). Belize is bordered by Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south. To the east, it is bordered by the Caribbean Sea, with the Belize Barrier Reef, which runs parallel to the coastline for the entire length of the country. Belize can be divided into two topographic areas – to the north is the flat, limestone Yucatan platform to the north, the Maya Mountains and flat coastal plain to the south. Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in this low-lying southern coastal region, between the foothills of the Maya Mountains and the Bay of Honduras. It is fed by the rivers and creeks that drain the mountain slopes, via the Moho River. Aguacaliente Wildlife Sanctuary encompasses a wetland area positioned in a low lying basin containing lagoons, swamps and creeks. This is surrounded by hills and higher ground of forests and shrubland, cut through with creeks flowing down to the central wetland area. In the northern section of the Sanctuary there is a small area of karstic hills, at the base of which are two hot springs, the features which give the Sanctuary its name.