Our Fundraising arm
Eco-Quest Expeditions "Saving Wilderness Through Adventure"
We have the best naturalist guides and rangers with extensive experience in conducting long distance expeditions in the most extreme and rugged areas of Belize imaginable. Their passion is conservation work and they're welcoming you to be a part of their ongoing conservation effort in areas never thought possible for the common visitor a few years ago. Each trip is based on the concepts of monitoring, education, promoting pride and making the visitor be an integral part of the protection program. Our motto is Saving Wilderness through Adventure. To get this experience you do not need to be an avid hiker, but must enjoy the outdoors – we promise to take you to areas that are unique and be a part of a high caliber staff whose goal is to protect the areas that you will hike and climb.
Eco-Quest Expeditions "Saving Wilderness Through Adventure"
We have the best naturalist guides and rangers with extensive experience in conducting long distance expeditions in the most extreme and rugged areas of Belize imaginable. Their passion is conservation work and they're welcoming you to be a part of their ongoing conservation effort in areas never thought possible for the common visitor a few years ago. Each trip is based on the concepts of monitoring, education, promoting pride and making the visitor be an integral part of the protection program. Our motto is Saving Wilderness through Adventure. To get this experience you do not need to be an avid hiker, but must enjoy the outdoors – we promise to take you to areas that are unique and be a part of a high caliber staff whose goal is to protect the areas that you will hike and climb.
Threats and Challenges
Our natural environment is constantly under threat, particularly as populations increase. Although Belize possesses many protected areas, the work of FCD is uniquely challenging since 90% of the threats and stressors in Belize's largest protected areas, the Chiquibul National Park, are from a trans-boundary nature. In 2007 when FCD entered into a co-management agreement with the Forest Department for the management of the Chiquibul National Park, we have annually been documenting a progressive escalation of illegal activities. FCD's goal has been an ongoing struggle to reclaim the integrity of the Chiquibul National Park. Yet, the threats including poaching of spectacular wildlife such as the scarlet macaws, great curassows, brockett deer and peccaries is ongoing. Extraction of non-timber forest produce and primary hardwoods such as Belize's national tree, the Mahogany is being illegally smuggled across Belize's western border. Looting for Maya artifacts are extensive and incursions as a result of the agricultural expansion is dramatic. The loss is in the millions and the problem is rapidly impoverishing the ecological processes and the stability of the maya forest. The Chiquibul National Park is part of the tri-national bioregion forming the largest remaining contiguous block of tropical forest north of the Amazon. Saving this tropical broadleaf forest is not only crucial to the survival of wildlife species, but also vital to human populations from both Belize and Guatemala that depend on the environmental services and goods derived from this exuberant forest. You can be a part of this ongoing struggle by supporting our programs.
Our natural environment is constantly under threat, particularly as populations increase. Although Belize possesses many protected areas, the work of FCD is uniquely challenging since 90% of the threats and stressors in Belize's largest protected areas, the Chiquibul National Park, are from a trans-boundary nature. In 2007 when FCD entered into a co-management agreement with the Forest Department for the management of the Chiquibul National Park, we have annually been documenting a progressive escalation of illegal activities. FCD's goal has been an ongoing struggle to reclaim the integrity of the Chiquibul National Park. Yet, the threats including poaching of spectacular wildlife such as the scarlet macaws, great curassows, brockett deer and peccaries is ongoing. Extraction of non-timber forest produce and primary hardwoods such as Belize's national tree, the Mahogany is being illegally smuggled across Belize's western border. Looting for Maya artifacts are extensive and incursions as a result of the agricultural expansion is dramatic. The loss is in the millions and the problem is rapidly impoverishing the ecological processes and the stability of the maya forest. The Chiquibul National Park is part of the tri-national bioregion forming the largest remaining contiguous block of tropical forest north of the Amazon. Saving this tropical broadleaf forest is not only crucial to the survival of wildlife species, but also vital to human populations from both Belize and Guatemala that depend on the environmental services and goods derived from this exuberant forest. You can be a part of this ongoing struggle by supporting our programs.
