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In
the far northwest of Orange Walk district is the Rio Bravo
Conservation Area, a 1000-square- kilometer tract designated for
tropical forest conservation, research and sustained-yield forest
harvests. This conservation success story actually began with a
disastrous plan in the mid-1980s to clear the forest, initially to
fuel a wood-fired power station and later to provide Coca-Cola with
frost-free land to grow citrus.
An
imaginative project to save the threatened forest, the Programme
for Belize , was initiated by the Massachusetts Audubon Society
in 1988. Funds were raised from corporate donors and conservation
organizations but the most widespread support was generated through
an ambitious "adopt-an-acre" scheme. Coca-Cola itself, anxious to
distance itself from the charge of rainforest destruction, has
donated more than 360 square kilometers.
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 Belize
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Today, rangers patrol the
area to prevent illegal logging and to stop farmers encroaching onto
the reserve with milpas (slash and burn fields). Thanks to
the ban on hunting, the forest teems with wildlife ,
including all five of Belize's cat species, plus more than 300 types
of bird. The guarded boundaries also protect dozens of Maya sites
, most of them unexcavated and unrestored, though many have been
looted.
There's no public transport to Rio Bravo, but if you're
staying at La Milpa Field Station you can get a bus (Mon-Sat at
10am) from the side of the fire station in Orange Walk to San
Felipe, 37km away, and arrange to be picked up there.
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Cayo and the west
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Belize city
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Belize zoo
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Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
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San Antonio
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San Ignacio
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Xunantunich, San Jose
Corozal, Orange Walk
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