Published by Elmar Requena - On 30 June 2009

The month of June was productive; during this month I accomplished most of the activities that were undertaken. Some of the major activities accomplished are:

• Community Stewards Presentation
• Plan for Riparian Restoration Project
• Attend Statistics Course at UB
• Monthly Biodiversity Monitoring
• Monthly Water Quality Monitoring
• Attend PANTHERA meeting

During the first week of June I prepared and presented a power point presentation to the Community Stewards on the Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecosystems of Belize. The presentation generated a lot of discussions on the different activities that we conduct, some of the impacts and some of the restorative measures that we can take. During the second and third week I conducted several one on one meeting with villagers from San Pedro Columbia and San Miguel to gather information on fallow up projects to the Impact Mapping. These are projects that could be implemented in the communities. The response was positive and they embraced the idea of Riparian restoration for the most impacted areas along the river. This project will include a nursery development later this year.
 
We successfully conducted biodiversity monitoring in both Payne’s Creek National Park and the Private Lands Initiative. Water quality monitoring was also completed in Rio Grande and Monkey River.
 
During the third week I attended a Statistics course at the University of Belize, Belmopan Campus. The Course was geared towards data analysis and interpretation. Having attended the course it has increase my capacity to analyze the data that we have been collecting. 
A new organization has express interest to work in the Toledo District to study Jaguars. PANTERA, an international organization is presently proposing to conduct a study in the district to find out where jaguars are most sited. Having this information their goal is to establish a Jaguar corridor through the Toledo District to link the Maya Mountains to other forested areas in Guatemala and Honduras. Presently they have two personnel on the ground conducting interviews. The organization has also express interest in working with local NGOs like TIDE to do jaguar conservation.