Satellite images, rosewood and neighbors

I start this blog entry with a satellite image. Well, with news also: we have another Spaniard in our team! His name is Jaume, he is from Barcelona and he was here last year working as GIS technician, and he has come back to do the same for a longer period (my god, how much did I need those skills in my project!). And this picture is his first output, after a single day of work( damm, he's good).

This pictuee was taken this year, and we can see many things on it. In red, the boundaries of Belize and its districts, as well as the islands of the cayes. In blue is the Maya Golden Landscape, our working focus area. In the sea, we can see the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second biggest in the world. But that's not the point. The country that borders with Belize is Guatemala in most of the line and Mexico in the North, and Honduras is visible in the lower right corner. You can see that the color of the terrain out of the boundaries is of a light green, in opposition to the dark green inside Belize. The former corresponds with agricultural land, pastures and clearing of the forests, whereas the later are extensions of more or less intact tropical forest.

Briefing: Guatemala, due mainly to its high population density, strong pressure on natural resources and lack of regulations suffers a very high deforestation rate, whereas Belize, mainly due to a ridiculously small population (compared with neighboring countries) still maintains much of its natural vegetation cover. And that is what makes it so relevant for biodiversity and conservation. This is that much, that in the image without lines, you can tell where the border between these countries is just looking ant the color change!

Next issue: the hottest topic in environmental issues during the last months was the accelerated exploitation of rosewood, to sell mainly to the Asiatic market, hungry of all kind of precious timber and animal products (let's not mention ivory and rhino horn...). Rosewood and other kinds of timber have traditionally been a part of the economy of Belize, but the situation had evolved in a pillage of the kind "take as much as you can, as fast as you can", wich was deplenissing the stocks and natural population of a species with a very limited distribution range (only Belize and reduced areas in neighboring countries) and of which very few was known.

Ya'axché was advocating for a moratorium in the extraction, until a population assessment were performed and a management plan put in place. Pretty much unsuccessfully, as there are too many fat cats involved in this business. Until this week. The new minister Alamilla (our ex-Executive Director), as a first measure of her mandate, has proclaimed the moratorium! That's a wonderful beginning! Will se be allowed to do things the right way for the full 4 years? We will see...

And for saying goodbye, I want to remark that in PG there are tons of dogs... they are simply all around the place, and most of the times very friendly. And yesterday I discovered we have four new neighbors in our house!

New puppies!

Bur Sergio, what do YOU exactly do there?

Well, it is time for me to explain what the hell I do in this remote corner of the Caribbean, and what the fuck the NMBCA Project is...

Basically, I came here to be the manager of the NMBCA Project. The NMBCA (Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act) is a policy text of the USA aimed to protect (surprise surprise!) migratory birds, concretely those that breed in North America during the summer and overwinter in Central and South America. Under this Act, grants are awarded to organizations that work in the same direction, and here is where Ya'axché enters the scene.

Birding in Nim-Li Punit (mayan ruins).

So we find a situation in which the US Fish and Wildlife Service gives as a grant to protect migratory birds. And what we do with it? A thousand things. For instance, we work in Agroforestry systems with the local farmers. These are farms in which certain crops (in our case cacao, and in other parts of the world also coffee) are grown under the shade of trees, generally those from the local forests. This has the advantage that the converted land is not cleared, remaining a good habitat for birds. Also, this kind of farming is sustainable, organic and long-term oriented, as the shade trees may and generally are timber trees, which can be eventually extracted, and grown beside the main crop. Moreover, we work directly in community development, and Community Development Plans occupy a big piece of our agendas and meetings lately.

One of our rangers, the ones who patrol a monitor.

We do Biodiversity Monitoring (a.k.a.: what and who is where, when, how and how many of them) which helps to the correct management of our protected areas. Outreach activities also have an important role to play in this project, and these ones range from field trips to Bladen Natural Reserve with the kids from the schools...

School trip to BNR.

Related with this two last things (monitoring and outreach) comes a thing that, even though not the biggest in the project, is probably the one that takes much time from me, and sure makes me work many weekends. Those are the Bird Clubs and the Farmers-Birds Alliance. The formers are groups made mainly by young people from the villages that meet to go birding and learn about birds and the environment. The later are groups of farmers that we are training to do bird monitoring in their farms, getting paid for that and helping us a lot (eventually, we have to wait for the data).

Birding trip to Crooked Tree.

And last, but not least, being the PM means that you are kind of a "one fits all": you are involved in a little of everything, may be required to fill many gaps and do many tasks other people cannot, as well as the regular PM tasks as managing the budget and ensuring that the objectives are on their way to be achieved.

Monitoring birds with the farmers.

Seems a lot? It seemed to me in the beginning. A hundred small things to keep in mind at a time... but it is very varied, and I am learning a lot about it. I love my job!

Life in the Caribbean and other staff

Well, I am so sorry. I am sure that most of you have noticed the decrease in the frequency of my blogging and in the contents... but there is a reason valid enough for it. Simply, days, weeks and life pass pleasantly, fast and enjoyably in this town, but with this Caribbean peace that makes everything move slowly and time pass rapidly. When you like your job, your colleagues, the country... time flies.

Fisherman in Crooked Tree.

Some news happen, though. Last, elections took place in Belize, and this week, the new government was appointed. For our general surprise, our Executive Director (Lisel Alamilla) has been declared Minister of Fisheries, Forestry, Sustainable Development and Indigenous People. Fuck yeah. Almost nothing. And curiously, she has never been into politics. It comes from the decision of the new Primer Minister of taking some experts for certain positions, instead of politicians. And he chose Lisel, even if during his previous mandate she and Ya'axché brought her government to the Court due to some nasty issue related with illegal concessions to build a dam in a protected area. Good news for Belize!

Sometimes, after the rain, the air turns yellow... I'm not kidding!
It is such a surprising effect. The image is what turns up when you
try to trap that with a picture... even if you fail, the effect is nice.

Also, after the inaugural party for our apartment, we went to spend the remaining part of the weekend (as Monday was a national holiday) to Placencia. Placencia is a little town in the coast, kind of a touristic, but still undeveloped (in tourism terms) enough as for keeping its charm intact. You know: diving, nice restaurants, beach, relax, some nightlife... The plan of the construction of a big deck with the aim of attracting cruise ships menaces to destroy the attractiveness of this town. But meanwhile, we pretend to enjoy of it as much as possible, and we will be back in a month to try to see the whale sharks.

Placencia Beach.

Laughing Bir Kaye, just a short sail from Placencia.

Terns, pelicans and cormorants in Placencia.

Magnificent frigatebird, very common in these waters, and one of my
favorites.

Meanwhile, if you want to read more about our adventures and see more pics, Erik (my roomy and colleague) writes his own blog: http://blog.erikhammar.se/ Enjoy of it!

New appartment

Well, many of you already knew about my plans to move in to PG. So finally it has happened! Erik (mu Swedish buddy) and me have moved today to an apartment in PG Town, which has kept us busy. Lovely place to live in, and it's nice to go back to a place slightly more civilized (specially for me, as I know I will have to be back and forth the field station anyway) and a good opportunity to get to know the place and the people better!

The house we live in. Our apartment is in the basement, which is better because
are less scorpions.

The back terrace, best venue for barbecues in PG! And with sea breeze.

View of PG town from the back terrace. In the back, the Caribbean Sea.

The coffee shop of our landlords, just next door: nice coffee, tea and snacks
(delicious frozen choco-bananas!).

We were looking forward to move, as having to go to town to do everything is pretty uncomfortable. But specially to get rid of the myriad insects that tormented us up there in the forest edge. Those dammed bottles flies drive me crazy! I can't understand how such a small animal can make such nasty and long-standing itch!

Out neighbors seem to be very nice, and for sure they form an international environment! A British boy that works as freelance journalist, and three japanese girls that work for the Japanese version of the Peace Corp who, by the way, own two lovely dogs called Caffelatte and Milky (they also had a small pup called Chocolate, but it died recently).

So far, this Saturday we will hold a warm-up party to know our neighbors and show off our new flat in front of our friends... just kidding. Wanna join?

Sunrise in Bladen Natural Reserve.