In the photo, one can see the invaded area visited by ParksWatch-Guatemala. To the left-center, one can see part of the deforestation that the invadors have caused and in the back (top left, hardly visible) one can see CONAP\’s guard post that has been taken over, and in the center one can see a few of the men and women that have invaded the area.
On Wednesday, February 19th, forty families invaded \”Pocitos,\” the control post of the National Council on Protected Areas (CONAP) located in the southern section of the park. As of March, the settlers were still illegally occupying and logging the forest in one of the most important areas of the park.
ParksWatch visited the occupied areas and verified the number of settlers and the illegal logging activities–information that park administrators lacked because they had not been able to enter the zone. The situation is tense because steps have been taken to begin the eviction but the National Police have not arrived to carry out the eviction.
Illegal invasions means a serious problem for the park. They create additional fragmentation that could be irreversible. Research has been conducted estimating that about 50% of the protected area is already affected in some way by human settlements, agriculture or grazing. The authorities\’ intervention has been slow and hardly efficient. This means that the people who encourage and participate in illegal invasions are able to do in virtual freedom, even though arrest orders have been issued.
Sierra del Lacandón National Park is located in northwestern Guatemala in the department of Petén. It is one of the Maya Biosphere Reserve\’s core zones and it borders México. It is the second largest national park in Guatemala but illegal activities and human presence have resulted in a rapid loss of forest cover.
Despite the fact that it is impacted by land use change (agricultural conversion), the park is still very important for two major reasons. First, it still maintains one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the Maya Biosphere Reserve and second, it continues to serve as a viable biological cooridor to Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in México.
ParksWatch: March 2003