Grassroots Conservation in Belize

"Public participation" and "community engagement" are terms with which I have been beaten in the head enough to know that they are essential for the support of environmental protection initiatives. Having observed how abandoned most of Belize's landscape seemed, I was surprised to read in a Belize guidebook that there existed a Community Baboon Sanctuary in a remote part of the country (but really... everything is remote in that country with a population of only 300,000 people and basically 2 main paved roads). Apparently, "baboon" is the name for howler monkeys in Belize, the big black primates that emit scary loud noises (if your volume is low, make sure to read the youtube comments).

I learned that the voluntary members of the grassroots conservation project, initiated in the mid 80's, are required of three things:

(1) leaving a strip of bush along the river corridor as primary habitat for the howlers, (2) protecting trees along the property fence line in an effort to create an aerial corridor, and (3) preserving food trees for the howlers when clearing farmland (Alexander, 2000).

In return, they enjoy revenues from eco-tourism as visitors come to see the "baboons" while their farmland benefit from adjoining native vegetation which contributes to lovely nutrient cycles, the success of pollination, and other things I have little understanding of. The guided tour and small museum is also a great form of popular education for locals and visitors alike.

This small, low-budget operation seems to be working out pretty well. Though there are issues of ecotourism revenues not being evenly distributed, a study found that "most residents had positive feelings about its purpose and its impacts" (Alexander, 2000).

This bottom-up approach success story is totally inspiring. Now how do we replicate this success and encourage initiatives like this across the world? Oh, and you know what else is inspiring? Monkey butt in my face.

The howlers were surprisingly gentle, with slow, deliberate movements and very soft fur. They only approached us when our guide Robert waved around some tasty leaves to entice them. Rob knew all of them personally, right down to their date of birth. I'm not sure about the impacts of altering the monkeys' behaviour patterns by accustoming them to taking treats out of tourists' hands. I hope that overall, it's for their good.

Source Cited
Alexander, S. E. (2000). Resident attitudes towards conservation and black howler monkeys in Belize: the Community Baboon Sanctuary. Environmental Conservation, 27(4), 341-350.