Rosewood Landing, Belize

Update to TiME stakeholders: resolving the challenges of purchasing Rosewood Landing in Belize

As TiME’s stakeholders may know, with the help of many generous donations, we obtained the funds to purchase an amazing and important biodiversity-conservation site in Belize as part of our 2021 campaign. Many voted on our website to choose this site. Sadly, TiME has recently learned that the purchase will not occur because the seller, a Belizean company, has dissolved due to financial difficulties that may take years to be resolved within Belize’s legal system.

Property purchases can be problematic everywhere. Our conservation partners in Belize, Ya’axché and Fauna and Flora International (FFI) are outstanding organizations, and TiME will continue to explore other opportunities for collaboration. We assure everyone that TiME made every effort to make the purchase a success.

In accordance with TIME’s democratic and transparent process, the TiME Board of Directors will decide how to reallocate the funds that had been dedicated to purchase this site to another project listed on our website for our 2022 campaign. The good news, as explained in the statement below from FFI and Ya’axché, is that there are no immediate threats to the ecological integrity of Rosewood Landing and it will continue to be of value to endangered species as both a habitat and an important wildlife migration corridor.

Many thanks for your trust and support. We will inform you of the TiME Board’s decision to reallocate the funds as soon as possible.

Statement about Rosewood Landing by FFI and Ya’axché:

“Part of the Maya Golden Landscape in southern Belize, Rosewood Landing is part of the ecological connectivity which maintains the quality of habitat, particularly for species that require extensive ranges to survive. It is part of the southern biological corridor, other parts of which are in the National Protected Areas System in Belize. The landscape is home to large mammals like Jaguar (Panthera onca) and Puma (Puma concolor), and endangered species like the Yucatán black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra) and Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii). Unfortunately, the purchase of Rosewood Landing has run into a serious legal difficulty. The Belizean company which owns the land has been wound up, i.e. it no longer functions as a company. This means that it is not possible for the company to complete the sale of the land. We are disappointed that it cannot become the property of a nature conservation NGO committed to protecting its value for nature.

However the news is not all bad. We believe that there is no immediate threat to Rosewood Landing, so it will continue to be of value to threatened species. FFI, a 501(c)(3) in the US and a UK registered charity, has completed the purchase of a large piece of the Maya Golden Landscape called Boden Creek, and Ya’axché, a Belizean NGO, is now working to protect this area of forest which could have been felled if it had been bought by an unsympathetic owner.”

The habitat

In southern Belize, the Maya Golden Landscape (MGL) is a mosaic of globally important protected areas, private, state and community lands. MGL is the home to over 337 species of birds, 20 of fish, 93 of mammals and 92 reptiles, including several endangered species: 2 plant, 2 bird and 3 mammal.

It also provides invaluable environmental goods and services to the predominantly indigenous Maya population (who make up 69% of the district’s population), who face high poverty (46% of the district’s population are below the poverty line) and rely on the region’s natural resources for their livelihoods.

Rosewood Landing forms a part of this majestic landscape, which is the primary southern biological corridor for Belize and the only remaining broadleaf forest link between the Maya Mountains (the Selva Maya) and the forested coastal plains of southern Belize. Rosewood Landing is one of the most biodiversity-rich and geographically unique areas within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor and forms a significant portion of the Key Biodiversity Area of the Maya Mountain Massif. The land comprises dwarf mangrove areas, riparian forest and lowland broadleaf forest.

This parcel of land is adjacent to the Golden Stream River, which empties into the Port Honduras Marine Reserve and the Belize Barrier Reef System. Rosewood Landing provides water security for commercial and subsistence agriculture for the ten indigenous communities downstream.

Some of the threatened species in this habitat include:

Critically Endangered Hickatee Turtle (Dermatemys mawii)
Endangered Yucatán Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta pigra)
Endangered Central American Spider Monkey (Ateles gelffroyi)
Endangered Baird’s Tapir (Tapirus bairdii)
Endangered Yellow-headed Parrot (Amazona oratrix)
Vulnerable lowland and highland White-lipped Peccary (Tayassu pecari)

Local Partner NGOs

Ya’axché Conservation Trust; and Fauna & Flora International

Status of registration of the group at the national level

Ya’axché Conservation Trust is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization in Belize; Fauna & Flora International is a UK registered charity.

Governance and management structure of the group

Since its founding in 1997, Ya’axché Conservation Trust has worked towards harmony between nature and human development for the benefit of both. Ya’axché has a staff of 31, and the Executive Director reports directly to the Board of Directors. With an average annual budget of $2.5 million BZD, Ya’axché focuses on biodiversity conservation and sustainable local and indigenous livelihoods through responsible land- and natural-resource use in the Maya Golden Landscape, a 770,000-acre mosaic of globally important protected areas, private, state and community lands.