Fire Management Training

A fire management training workshop was held recently in the Toledo District of southern Belize, sponsored by the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT), US Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Nature Conservancy.  The training was part of an ongoing effort to build local capacity in fire management for the protection of Belize’s sensitive Pine Savannah, and to strengthen the network of fire management professionals, raise awareness of the threats of wildfires and help residents understand the role they play in causing forest fires, albeit unintentional.   Training participants included community members, Bladen Management Consortium, Ya’axche Conservation trust; The Wood Depot, Gomez & Sons Ltd, the Belize Forest Department, and TIDE.

The training covered both the theoretical and practical aspects of fire management,

Participants in the 2008 Fire Management Training undergo a practical prescribed burn exercise.

with a classroom session held in Big Falls Village in Toledo, and a field session held in the Deep River Forest Reserve (DRFR).  DRFR is managed by the Forest Department and concession holders, The Wood Depot and Gomez & Sons, Ltd., for sustainable timber extraction.  DRFR is adjacent to Payne’s Creek National Park, which is co-managed by TIDE and the Forest Department.  The two protected areas have a lot in common in terms of ecosystems, yet Payne’s Creek is protected from all extraction.  The two parks share more than a border though, and wild fires easily spread from one to the other, making it all the more important for there to be open collaboration between the managers, as is the case. 

Payne’s Creek National Park has several ecosystems that are rich in biodiversity and endangered flora and fauna species, including the Black Howler Monkey, Baird’s Tapir, Jaguar, West Indian Manatee, and many more.  The most threatened ecosystem within the park is the pine savannah, due to the annual wild fires that burn through large swaths each dry season, leaving only mature trees behind.  A healthy pine savannah needs a mix of different aged trees to perform its many ecosystem functions, including supporting nesting sites for over 300 bird species, including the endangered yellow-headed parrot and the threatened aplomado falcon, great curassow, and black catbird.

The fires in Payne’s Creek are usually caused by hunters who light the herbaceous layer in certain areas to burn out the dry grass so that the white-tailed deer can

Howler Monkey © Sun Creek Lodge

graze on the young sprouts and grass shoots in the cleared areas.  However, the fires generally escape their grasp and become wild fires destroying thousands of acres of pine forests each year.

As part of TIDE’s management of Payne’s Creek National Park, we are increasing our surveillance efforts for early detection of wildfires; our new lookout tower is proving lucrative in that regard.  Once the savannah remains fire free for a few years, we will be able to begin prescribed burning to provide the needed, controlled fires that are important to the ecosystem.  We are also monitoring yellow-headed parrot nesting sites and migratory birds, which are indicators of the overall health of the ecosystem.

One of the facilitators of the training, who works for The Nature Conservancy in

Stakeholders have thousands of acres of forest to monitor the wild fires which occur yearly.

Florida, told our national radio station, LOVE FM, how impressed he was by the quality and size of our Pine Savannah in Belize.  “In Florida, we only have tiny patches of savannah left, and here you have amazingly intact parks.  It is truly impressive and important that it remain protected.” 

Our sincere thanks to PACT, USFWS, TNC, and the participants of the training for their great efforts in protecting Belize’s remaining Pine Savannahs.