Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary - History

History

Throughout much of the foothills of the eastern slopes in southern Belize, there is evidence of Mayan habitation since at least 10,000 BCE. The Pearce Ruin was the first Mayan site to have been catalogued in modern history archives in a report to the British Museum in 1931; however, the ruin was not re-sighted until 1995 with the Dunham surveys. At that late date two other Mayan sites were documented: Hun' Tul Mo' (one macaw) and Xa'a Yul Ha' (many rivers).

The first modern explorations that led to recorded features of the Cockscomb Basin were conducted by the British in expeditions of 1888 and 1889. These adventures began with river excursions up the South Stann Creek and resulted in attainment of what these explorers thought to be Victoria Peak, the highest point in Belize; in fact, later reconstructions showed that the mounting of a nearby peak to Victoria had been scaled.

Further exploration of the Cockscomb Basin did not transpire until 1927, when further British expeditions were launched to assess timber reserves; subsequently, logging began to occur until the year 1984, primarily with extraction of cedar (Cedrela odorata) and mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). At about the same time as exploitation of these resources was virtually complete, a nationwide study of the jaguar was initiated. This scientific investigation led by Alan Rabinowitz, a recent recipient of the PhD degree from the University of Tennessee, found that the Cockscomb Basin was a particularly important habitat for the jaguar, not only in Belize, but from a Central America perspective.

In 1986, Rabinowitz and Archie Carr III convinced the government of Belize to establish a no hunting zone with respect to jaguars in a portion of the Cockscomb Basin. By 1990, after further convincing the Belize government expanded the Sanctuary substantially, and in 1995 another 160 km² were added to connect the holding to the Bladen Branch Nature Reserve. In 1988, the IUCN declared the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary "The major achievement in cat conservation for the triennium". In that year, Prince Philip as president of WWF, honoured Ignacio Pop for his work in encouraging creation of the reserve. In 1998, the Victoria Peak National Monument area was established embracing 19.59 km² of protected land