Global Conservation 2017 Progress - New Park Rangers and Community Ecoguards for Mirador National Park, Guatemala

Global Conservation and our partners - FundaEco and Rainforest Trust - have established the first Mirador Park Rangers working with the Government of Guatemala and local communities.  Led by Francisco Asturius, Director Mirador Rangers, they now cover thousands of miles of Mirador National Park and adjacent areas for protection of Mirador’s forests and wildlife.

The new Mirador Park Rangers are a combined team of government, NGO and community ecoguards working together to stop wildlife poaching and hunting, looting of archaeological sites, and illegal logging and land clearing.

Global Conservation and Rainforest Trust are sharing in the start-up costs of the Mirador Park Rangers for 4 years by which time we expect the Mirador Park to generate income from Visitor Fees for the 5,000 plus visitors hiking in and flying in by helicopter. 

In 2017, over 2,000 visited in Semana Santa holy week, mostly Guatemalans experiencing the wonders of Mirador’s Preclassic Maya archaeology and one of the last intact major (over 1M acres) tropical forests in Central America.

Fires are now surrounding the last intact major forests left of the Maya Biosphere Reserve.

Threats to Mirador National Park include land clearing for cattle ranching driven by narco-trafficking, hunting and wildlife poaching, and illegal logging. Over 80% of the surrounding Maya Biopsphere has been destroyed in the past 20 years.

Mirador Ranger Teams with ATV Quads patrol thousands of miles to cover the difficult terrain including large swamps.

FundaEco and CECON, two of Guatemala’s leading environmental NGOs - Institutions, are collaborating with Peten communities and the government to establish a new park authority, ranger teams and community ecoguards for the Selva Maya and Dos Lagunas areas of Mirador, adding over 100,000 acres under Mirador Ranger protection.

Mirador is one of the world’s wonders with over 1 million acres of protected forests containing the largest and oldest Maya cities, pyramids and temples; Guatemala’s leading candidate for UNESCO World Heritage designation.  Mirador offers visitors one of the most impressive combined cultural and natural experiences in the world with the largest and oldest ancient cities buried in the deep jungle.

Mirador’s Rangers and Community Ecoguards undertake key activities including:

Park monitoring and surveillance

Trail and camp maintenance

Visitor safety and security

Communications with rangers and law enforcement

Assist NGOs in wildlife conservation

Assist community tourism cooperatives

Global Conservation is implementing Global Park Defense in Mirador, a park protection system and methodology to enable park rangers and park authorities to eliminate poaching, looting and illegal logging.

Rangers conduct targeted patrols into high-threat areas based on satellite, UAV drone, sensor and human intelligence.

SMART Patrol tech and training will be implemented to enable detailed reporting and tracking of illegal activities and patrol effectiveness. 

The Ministry of Environment / CONAP and Ministry of Culture / IDAEH agencies have few staff working in Mirador.

The new Mirador Rangers play a crucial role in the next 3-4 years until Mirador has greater resources for park management and protection.  We expect many of the Community Ecoguards to transition to full-time park rangers.

Goals in 2017-2018 include:

Increased and targeted forest patrols increasing the arrests of people participating in illegal forest and wildlife activities;

Training of community leaders in monitoring forests using surveillance systems, smartphones and radio communications;

Providing alternative livelihoods for community members to become Ecoguards and replacing income from poaching and illegal logging with tourism-related activities.

The long-term goal over the next decade is to enable increased tourism revenues and community benefits of tourism revenues including improved schools, medical facilities, water treatment and other development essentials.

2017 Progress Review

Progress so far in 2017 include number of accomplishments in planning, protection, community and partnerships:

Planning

Completed draft Mirador Master Plan with input from over 60 stakeholders. Includes options and budgeting for infrastructure, jobs, development, community training and conservation of natural and cultural world heritage of Mirador.

Sponsored mapping and improvements for new year-around trail on an upland route which will be critical to increasing visitors and dedicated ecotourism businesses into Mirador.

Designed Global Park Defense for Mirador including communications, surveillance, patrolling and software systems needed to achieve high-effectiveness over large patrol areas while ensuring visitor security / safety.

Protection

Hired and trained ten (10) Mirador Rangers with a plan to add six (6) more in the coming years (2017-2018).

Completed over 2,200 miles of patrolling by Mirador Ecoguards meeting hundreds of groups working in the forest, many hunting, looting and poaching. The presence of Mirador Ecoguards is now putting pressure on these groups to reduce any illegal activities and focus on sustainable tourism and forest products.

Deploying camera traps across Mirador for wildlife monitoring and identification of poachers, with potential to upgrade to cellular and satellite communications.

Trained the lead rangers from Mirador at the World Ranger Congress and by the U.S. Park Service in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Expanded patrol areas by three times now covering 40 ancient Maya cities and over 300,000 hectares in and around Mirador National Park.

Community

Completed two major 50,000 gallon water cisterns critical for rangers, tourists (now over 5,000 visitors) as well as for Mirador archaeological teams (over 300 people).

Installed by our partners (FARES and APANAC) a new town water system for Carmelita and 30 new computers in the Carmelita school.

Training of Mirador Guides on cultural, natural and geological history of Mirador. Over 45 certified Guides now from the local gateway communities.

Partners

Co-funded new alliance for protection of Mirador including Rainforest Trust, a major global land conservancy and FundaEco, one of Guatemala’s best NGOs working in 15 protected areas.

Working with Carmelita Tourism Cooperative, Mirador Guide Association and the Ministry of Tourism to improve capacity and certification for Mirador Ecotourism.

Strengthened partnership with CONAP, the Council of National Protected Areas of Guatemala to create the first Community Ecoguard program.

Received support from the Presidency of Guatemala, Ministry and Environment, INGUAT Tourism Authority and multiple communities and NGOs in Peten.

For more information on the Mirador Ranger Protection Program, email Executive Director Jeff Morgan at jmorgan@globalconservation.org