Sarstoon-Temash is the southernmost

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

. The national park was designated in 1994, and covers an area of 165.92 km². It is managed by the

Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management The Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) is a nonprofit non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, t ...

(SATIIM), in partnership with the Forest Department.

Geography

The park is bounded on the south by the

Sarstoon River The Sarstoon River () is a Central American river that forms part of the international border between Belize and Guatemala. The source of the 111-kilometer-long river lies in Guatemala's Alta Verapaz Department. It flows eastward, serving as the ...

, which forms the border with

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. The lower Temash River runs through the park. It is bounded on the east by the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

Flora and fauna

The park includes a variety of habitat types. Seasonally and permanently flooded tropical forests predominate, which are part of the

Petén–Veracruz moist forests The Petén–Veracruz moist forests is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest biome found in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. Setting The Petén–Veracruz moist forests cover an area of , extending from central Verac ...

ecoregion. Wetland habitats include 1,100 hectares of freshwater sphagnum moss bog, which are distinct in the region, and the Belize's only stands of comfra palm (''

Manicaria saccifera ''Manicaria'' (Common names Monkey Cap Palm or Bussu) is a Arecaceae, palm genus which is found in Trinidad, Central America, Central and South America. It contains two recognized species: #''Manicaria martiana'' Burret – Colombia, northweste ...

''). The park also includes a brackish-to-saline inland lagoon, which forms a transition between the freshwater wetlands and 9,600 hectares of saline mangrove swamps. The mangrove swamps are Belize's largest and least-disturbed stand of red mangrove (''

Rhizophora mangle ''Rhizophora mangle'', also known as the red mangrove, is a salt-tolerant, small-to-medium sized evergreen tree restricted to coastal, estuarine ecosystems along the southern portions of North America, the Caribbean as well as Central America ...

''). The park is home to several threatened and vulnerable species of animals, including the black howler monkey (''Alouatta caraya''),

hickatee The hickatee (''Dermatemys mawii'') or in Spanish ''tortuga blanca'' ('white turtle'), also called the Central American river turtle, is the only living species in the family Dermatemydidae. The species is found in the Atlantic drainages of Ce ...

turtle (''Dermatemys mawii''),

Baird's tapir The Baird's tapir (''Tapirus bairdii''), also known as the Central American tapir, is a species of tapir native to Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South America. It is the largest of the three species of tapir native to the Americas, a ...

(''Tapirus bairdii''),

West Indian manatee The West Indian manatee (''Trichechus manatus''), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the Eastern United States to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it ...

(''Trichechus manatus''), and

Morelet's crocodile Morelet's crocodile (''Crocodylus moreletii''), also known as the Mexican crocodile or Belize crocodile, is a modest-sized crocodilian found only in the Atlantic regions of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. It usually grows to about in length. It i ...

(''Crocodylus moreletii'').

People

The indigenous Kekchi Maya and

Garifuna The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and Amerindian ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and traditionally speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language. The Garifuna ...

people live in the park's buffer zone, and both peoples attach cultural importance to areas of the park.

Conservation and threats

The park is jointly managed by the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) and Belize's forest department. The park was designated a

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

of international importance under the

Ramsar Convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...

in 2005. Threats to the park include

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

of valuable mahogany, cedar, and rosewood timber.

References

External links

Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management
{{authority control National parks of Belize Protected areas established in 1994 Ramsar sites in Belize Toledo District Petén–Veracruz moist forests Central American Atlantic moist forests