Some good news for a change

(I don't usually post things that I've read in the news but I thought this was something very positive and lord knows we can all use that ... especially in America right now.)

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The race to preserve one of the largest remaining tropical rainforests in the Americas got a big boost recently. In April 2021, a coalition of conservative partners, led by the Nature Conservancy, purchased 236,000 acres of tropical forest in north western Belize to create the BELIZE MAYA FOREST RESERVE.

Along with saving some of the most biodiverse forests in the world from denuding and development, the new protected area - which is contiguous with the neighboring Rio Bravo Conservation Mgt. Area - closes a huge gap in a vital wildlife corridor that runs from southeast Mexico through Guatemala and into Belize.

The combined reserve, which protects nearly a tenth of Belize’s land area, safeguards and connects essential habitats for an amazing variety of endemic and endangered wild things. These include the tapir, Belize’s national animal; black howler monkeys; more than 400 species of birds; and some of Central America’s largest surviving populations of jaguar.