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July 2008
New and Notable on www.eco-index.org: Mesoamerican Trails Project
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En Espaņol More About This Project Eco-Exchange Archive Eco-Index |
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Managing NGO, country: Colorado State University, United States; Conservation International (CI); Mesoamerican Ecotourism Alliance; SalvaNATURA, El Salvador
Project directors: Jim Barborak (CI); George Wallace (CSU); and Juan Pablo Dominguez and Mark Willuhn (MTA)
Summary: The long term goal of the Mesoamerican Trails Initiative is to design and build a regional trail network linking the protected areas of Central America and Mexico. This initiative is being carried out in collaboration with numerous partner NGOs in Central America and government tourism and natural and cultural resource management agencies. While similar to many other trail initiatives, the Mesoamerican Trail differs by specifically being designed to highlight visitation to natural protected areas as well as local communities. Rural agricultural landscapes will be as much a part of the trail as will pristine Neotropical forests. This "people and parks" focus will enable the Mesoamerican trail to serve as a vehicle for both nature protection and the development of sustainable livelihoods in protected area buffer zones and conservation corridors.
Annual budget and donors: $50,000 from The Legacy Fund, United States; United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United States; and the United States Forest Service.
Principal accomplishments: Held national workshops held in the seven countries in 1999 to discuss the feasibility of a regional trail network; produced a strategy to consolidate the region's trail network; conducted preliminary studies on the potential for developing hiking, biking, and aquatic trails in the region; developed multiple drafts of regional trail maps for Central America; gave presentations and distributed promotional materials at conferences; build pilot trail segments in protected areas throughout the region; held workshops and developed training materials about trail planning, construction, maintenance, and management; distributed tools and equipment after each workshop to build local capacity; held "train the trainers" workshops in Panama, Honduras, and Belize.
Anticipated accomplishments: Hold a planning workshop in Chiapas, Mexico to develop a state trail system; develop a Mesoamerican Trail logo and sign; hold the first workshop in the Guatemalan highlands; organize the second workshop in Nicaragua; construct at least 12.5 miles of pilot and prototype trails in Guatemala and Chiapas; update the Web site and publish revised trail maps; raise funds to consolidate and expand the initiative; organize "training the trainers" workshops; construct and maintain pilot segments of the Mesoamerican Trail Network; establish a technical advisory board; increase collaboration between the regional initiative and the Sendero Trans-Panama effort in Panama; continue inter-institutional support and bring in new national and local partners.
Contacts: Jim Barborak, Conservation International, P.O. Box 2365-2050, San Pedro, Costa Rica. Tel: +506/253-0500, jbarborak@conservation.org, www.conservation.org. George Wallace, Colorado State University, Center for Protected Area Management and Training, 201 Forestry Building, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1480. Tel: +970/491-6593, georgew@warnercnr.colostate.edu, conservation.warnercnr.colostate.edu.