Securing the Boden Creek Corridor in Belize, linking the Mountains and the Sea
| Bioregion | Yucatan & Veracruz Mixed Forests (NT27) |
| Category | Nature Conservation Our project categories represent one of three core solutions pathways to solving climate change. Energy Transition focuses on renewable energy access and energy efficiency. Nature Conservation includes wildlife habitat protection and ecosystem restoration, as well as Indigenous land rights. Regenerative Agriculture supports farmers, ranchers, and community agriculture. |
| Realm | Central America The Project Marketplace is organized by the major terrestrial realms divided into 14 biogeographical regions – N. America, Subarctic America, C. America, S. America, Afrotropics, Indomalaya, Australasia, Oceania, Antarctica, and the Palearctic realm, which coincides with Eurasia and is divided into Subarctic, Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern regions. |
| Status | active Seed indicates an early stage project that needs some level of support to develop into a larger funding proposal. Active indicates any project that needs core programmatic funding. Urgent indicates a short-term project initiated in response to a natural disaster or other impending risk. |
| Partner | Quick Response Fund for Nature |
One Earth’s Project Marketplace funds on-the-ground climate solutions that are key to solving the climate crisis through three pillars of collective action — renewable energy, nature conservation, and regenerative agriculture.
Fauna & Flora International (FFI), together with Belizean partner Ya’axché, is seeking funding to purchase Boden Creek and secure a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect a critical forest corridor from the mountains to the sea in Central America.
From 1998 onwards, Boden Creek was managed as a private reserve for conservation and ecotourism for at least 15 years. However, in 2012 it was partially abandoned, leading to the poaching of timber and wildlife from the private reserve, as well as the destruction of infrastructure due to conflicts between the former manager and adjacent communities. With a minimal caretaker presence, the poaching continued. The property has since changed hands, and the current owner considered a variety of land uses, including commercial agriculture, but has now put the property up for sale. If funds are not raised, it is highly likely that the property will be sold to an agricultural company and converted to monoculture crops of banana or orange trees. This would be devastating to the region’s biodiversity.
Image credit: Courtesy of Juan Pable Moreiras
Boden Creek’s forest has regenerated spectacularly and is home to an extraordinary range of species. Large mammals include the Jaguar (Panthera onca), Puma (Puma concolor), Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and Jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi), and the Endangered black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra), Central American spider monkey (Ateles gelffroyi) and Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii). No less than 51 of Belize’s 78 species of bat occur in Boden Creek. At least 247 bird species have been recorded, of which 18 are considered to be “of conservation concern”, including the Endangered Yellow-Headed parrot (Amazona oratrix). The avifauna includes 62 migrant bird species, most of them Neotropical migrants that travel between North America and Belize. Boden Creek is one of the last refuges of the Critically Endangered Hicatee turtle (Dermatemys mawii).