Cross-border forest reserve faces major hurdles

Mexico, Guatemala and Belize have announced plans to create a huge reserve of tropical forest spanning across the three countries.

- By Sonia PEREz D. AND Maria VERZA

PATRICIA ORANTES, Guatemala's environment minister, points to a map.

Pushing out criminal gangs and protecting the land from ranchers, miners and loggers won't be easy.

The nature reserve announced last week and called the Great Mayan Jungle Biocultural Corridor would stretch across jungle areas of southern Mexico and northern parts of the two Central American nations, encompassing more than 14 million acres. It would become the second-largest reserve in the Americas, behind only the Amazon.

In interviews this week, the environment ministers of Mexico and Guatemala emphasized the need for security, while also expressing the intention of both countries to avoid destructive projects in the area.

“The first thing is that the security forces begin to have a presence,” because the region has been abandoned and left to organized crime, Guatemala Environment Minister Patricia Orantes said. “This is not primarily an environmental battle. We're talking about the Guatemalan state needing to retake control of its territory.”

Environmental groups have long said that the jungle on both sides of the Mexi-

Collaboration between countries

Just sending troops will probably be insufficient, as Mexico’s experience along another part of its southern border in Chiapas has shown.

Organized crime has infiltrated economically strapped communities with few options and it has been difficult to root them out.