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A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot

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Mongabay reported in 2023 that thousands of hectares of forest were felled, likely for cattle ranching and airstrips for drug trafficking. Since then, the situation appears to have grown worse. Preliminary satellite data collected by Global Forest Watch show deforestation is pushing westward into the park, an area of previously intact forest. Roughly one-third of the park’s primary forest has been cleared since GFW began tracking it in 2002. Sierra del Lacandón National Park is a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s home to more than 300 species of birds and dozens of amphibian, mammal and reptile species. The ecological importance of the area extends beyond the boundaries of the park itself. It’s a critical biological corridor between the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala and the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, allowing wildlife such as scarlet macaws (Ara macao) and Baird’s tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) to safely move between protected areas. Without it, critically endangered species including the Yucatán black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra) and near-threatened jaguar (Panthera onca) can’t freely move through the region to find resources and mates needed for the survival of the species. When the park was founded in 1990, it was already home to roughly 20,000 people. Many moved there seeking safety amid Guatemala’s brutal civil war that began in the 1960s when the U.S. government backed a coup against a democratically elected leftist government. The government ordered the redistribution of undeveloped land from large landowners to landless farmers. It also required wealthy landowners to…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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