One of the illegal ranches within Laguna del Tigre National Park (photo © Trópico Verde, 2005)
GUATEMALA CITY, April 27, 2005 – The most important protected wetland of Central America, Laguna del Tigre National Park, is in agony. Lack of will from authorities to enforce the law has allowed big land owners to trespass into the park and perform illegal activities with absolute impunity.
It is broadly accepted that Laguna del Tigre National Park is a threatened area. What few people know is that logging and fires during the last five years have degraded more than 50% of the forests and threaten to completely destroy the most important wetland of Central America in the near future. A brief study recently published by ParksWatch – Assessment of Laguna del Tigre National Park – contains the most recent data about the threats affecting the biological diversity of the park.
The assessment shows that the situation in Laguna del Tigre is critical. With an illegally established human population that has grown by over 600% since the park was created, governability has been decreasing. Data from the last two years indicate that the land is being deforested at a rate of 2%, which means that the forest is deteriorating rapidly and being reduced to small stands with little biological value. In addition, human-induced forest fires have already affected over 70% of the park. Entire populations of globally endangered fauna have been eradicated from the core of the protected area. Contrary to what was believed, the budget increase obtained by Laguna del Tigre in 2004 has not substantially diminished the threats. If no immediate solutions are implemented, it is expected that the park will lose most of its [biodiversity] value within five years.
Laguna del Tigre National Park is located on the northern part of the Petén, within the Maya Biosphere Reserve. It is national property and was declared protected in 1990. The same year it was included in the List of Wetlands of International Importance of the Convention of Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971). In spite of the legal prohibition of permanent human settlements within the park, the increasing invasions from large cattle ranchers in combination with the presence of armed illegal groups – the result of a road built for oil extraction purposes – have caused a lack of control of such magnitude as to put the area itself on the brink of extinction.
For more information, contact ParksWatch at Trópico Verde
Claudia Sánchez, tel. (502) 23394225
info@tropicoverde.org.
ParksWatch-Guatemala, April 2005