Yesterday, we took you down south to San Pedro Columbia where wildfires have left almost a hundred farms scorched. Cacao, avocados, plantains, and more were all reduced to ash, leaving the farmers without their main source of income.
But it's not just that one village feeling the heat. The district of Toledo has been battling against flames and smoke for the past few weeks. And for the Ya'axche Conservation Trust, they came close to losing their field station in Golden Stream.
Courtney Menzies visited them yesterday and spoke with the executive director. Here's that story.
Right now, those working at the Ya'axche Conservation Trust are monitoring multiple fires burning in the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve surrounding their field station.
Like the other southern wildfires, these blazes are intensified by the heat and the wind. Last week the Trust came close to losing their entire field station, along with two decades of work.
Christina Garcia, Executive Director, Ya'axche Conservation Trust
"When we saw the fire coming close to the infrastructure that we have, the field station that we have here in the preserve and we decided that the best thing to do was to create a fire pass but when we created that fire pass it just didn't work because a flame basically jumped that fire pass and then it started another fire in the preserve. So it was a very scary moment for the organization because this is a very important forested area, it's the last link of forest between the Maya Mountains and the Coastal Plain so it's very sad to see it in this state. Plus the infrastructure that we have within the area, in the preserve, it signifies 25 years of investment into this particularly protected area so we were very fearful to lose that infrastructure, to lose those belongings, to lose those assets."
And like the farmers in San Pedro Columbia, Garcia said that she's never seen fires like this.
Christina Garcia, Executive Director, Ya'axche Conservation Trust
"This is the first time that I've seen the severity of fires in the entire Toledo District, usually we have severe drought but this is the first time that I've seen Toledo on fire. It is very scary, i know that a lot of farms are lost, a lot of areas in some of the protected forests have been lost and here is no exception and it is an exceptional year in Belize because I know a lot of the milpa farming, you do a lot of the burning of the milpa farm which happens traditionally every year but because of the climate and because of the circumstances, it makes it even more dangerous to basically create a fire because of the severe dry that we have, it's all fuel under that canopy, it's all fuel under those forests so it makes it more easy for the fire to just blaze and run and that's the problem that we have here in the preserve."
And now they must remain vigilant and prepare to act in case any of the current blazes come too close.
Christina Garcia, Executive Director, Ya'axche Conservation Trust
"We're still concerned because there is a huge fire burning right now in the preserve and if we don't control that fire, it could run quickly and come in the direction of the field station so we're extremely worried, we have men on the ground, we have a collaboration with the Maya Mountain Cacao and the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment, we have men on the ground trying to combat that fire."
And at this time Garcia is unsure whether these are natural or manmade fires.
