Mopan River is a river in Guatemala and the Cayo district in western Belize near the border with Guatemala. The Mopan River discharges to the Belize River as the Mopan merges with the Macal River; the Belize River in turn terminates at the Caribbean Sea. The Belize River/Mopan River Catchment contains over 45 percent of the human population of Belize. A hand cranked vehicle ferry boat conveys visitors to the Xunantunich site across the turbid Mopan River. The Mopan is an important source of drinking water and other domestic use for local people living along the Mopan; however, water quality is degraded from sediment, nutrient loading, untreated sewage discharge, pesticides and other toxins. The major source of degradation is the extensive deforestation in the upper reaches and non-sustainable agriculture. Karper and Boles have asserted: "The greater Mopan/Belize River Catchment provides a prime example of a watershed under stress from extensive non-sustainable agricultural practices that have occurred within the region over the past three decades." Slash-and-burn agricultural practices by native peoples are contributing to such watershed degradation.
Read more about Mopan River: Mayan Sites
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“It is from quiet places like this all over the world that the forces accumulate which presently will overbear any attempt to accomplish evil on a large scale. Like the rivulets gathering into the river, and the river into the seas, there come from communities like this streams that fertilize the consciences of men, and it is the conscience of the world that we are trying to place upon the throne which others would usurp.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)