In an attempt to rescue the threatened biodiversity of the Mexico--Central America isthmus, conservationists have hatched a grand scheme funded by the Global Environment Facility, a World Bank--United Nations fund. The goal of the Mesoamerican Corridor Project is to identify, protect and connect the region's most important and species-rich areas.
Mesoamerica, a bridge between continents, holds a riot of animal and plant species. Deer and raccoons from the North share forests with tapir, sloths and monkeys from the South. Plants and animals from the high paramo of the Andes are found in a Costa Rican mountain range; North American pine species extend to the coastal plains of eastern Nicaragua. Mesoamerica holds about 10 percent of the world's living species.
The corridor project is an initiative of the Central American Commission on the Environment and Development (CCAD), whose members are the environmental ministers from the seven Central American countries, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a U.S. nonprofit group. According to Mario Boza, who directs the project for WCS, Mesoamerican governments have already protected about 10 percent of the region, but 70 percent of these reserves are 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) or less, too small to support many wide-ranging animals. If small parks can be united by forested corridors, more biodiversity can be saved.
A $348,800 GEF grant is funding specialists in each Mesoamerican country to identify key areas of high biological diversity that must be protected now or be lost to deforestation and development. This preliminary project will also suggest which current and potential protected areas can be connected and identify significant conservation projects and grassroots groups working near these areas. Next year, a multi-million dollar GEF grant will help fund the resulting regional protected- area management plan.
The probable $15 million GEF grant will not be enough, acknowledges Boza, a founder of Costa Rica's respected national parks system. "We need about one or two billion dollars to conserve biodiversity in Mesoamerica," he says. "So we must find other sources of funds, like user fees. For example, consumers pay for the water they use; in turn, water utilities should pay national park systems for protecting watersheds. So should electrical utilities and the tourism industry."
Contacts: In Guatemala, Jorge Cabrera, CCAD, 7a Av. 13-01, Zona 9, Guatemala City, 502-2/34-3876 (tel-fax); in Costa Rica, Mario Boza, Apdo. 246-2050, San Pedro, 506/225-7516 (tel-fax); in the U.S., WCS, 185th St. & Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY 10460, 718/220-5897 (tel), 718/584-2625 (fax).
This article is provided from the Rainforest Alliance's Tropical Conservation Newsbureau, based in San Jose,Costa Rica. For more information, contact Diane Jukofsky or Chris Wille, Rainforest Alliance, Apdo. 138-2150, Moravia, San Jose, Costa Rica; Phone: 506-240-9383; Fax: 506-240-2543; Email: infotrop@sol.racsa.co.cr
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