A landscape of global ecological and cultural value
The Selva Maya rainforest network, Mesoamerica’s largest expansion of rainforests after the Amazon Rainforest, spans 38 million acres across Belize, northern Guatemala, and southeastern Mexico. Within this network of forests is the Belize Maya Forest, a tropical ecosystem buzzing with rich biodiversity and diverse landscapes. The Belize Maya Forest is a haven for vulnerable and endangered species like the Baird’s tapir, white-lipped peccary, and Yucatán black howler monkey. The forest is also home to Central America’s largest jaguar population, migrating between Belize, Mexico, and Guatemala. Additionally, the Belize Maya Forest holds immense Mesoamerican cultural significance, as it contains ancient Mayan archeological sites like the water temple and sacred pools of Cara Blanca.
Challenges threatening the Belize Maya Forest
In 2021, the Nature Conservancy and partners from multiple sectors purchased a 236,000-acre portion of the Selva Maya and created the local non-governmental organization Belize Maya Forest Trust to be the trustee, steward, and manager of the Belize Maya Forest. Soon after its creation, the Belize Maya Forest Trust formed a cohort of organizations, community leaders, businesses, and government entities to save the vital landscape from industrial agriculture and land clearing. Despite this landmark achievement, the forest continues to face immense threats. Illegal hunting threatens the survival of critical species, while wildfires caused by human activities, increasingly hot temperatures, and dry conditions exacerbated by climate change destroy vital habitats. In 2024, the Belize Maya Forest and surrounding regions experienced one of the largest wildfire seasons on record, impacting wildlife, human health, and community livelihood. During the 2023-2024 dry season, wildfires impacted an estimated 1400 acres of forest.
The Belize Maya Forest Trust partners with Rare
The Belize Maya Forest Trust (BMFT) ensures the long-term sustainability of the Belize Maya Forest by promoting biodiversity conservation, monitoring, community engagement, and stewardship. It also supports local rangers, who play a crucial role in patrolling the forest, preventing illegal hunting, monitoring wildlife, and combatting fires.
Rare is partnering with the Belize Maya Forest Trust to co-design behavior change strategies to improve fire management in stakeholder communities in the Belize Maya Forest landscape. This process will involve working with farmers in the Spanish Lookout and Valley of Peace communities to understand motivations and barriers to adopting fire safety measures and alternative practices to slash and burn agriculture. In May 2024, Rare hosted a behavior-centered design (BCD) workshop with BMFT and landscape stakeholders. Participants fostered collaboration and strengthened partnerships to implement collective actions to mitigate wildfires and destructive behaviors. Rare and BMFT are currently in the design phase, collecting qualitative and quantitative data through farmer interviews and surveys.