Shipstern Conservation & Management Area
| Shipstern Conservation & Management Area | |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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| Location | Corozal District, Belize |
| Nearest city | Sarteneja |
| Coordinates | 18°19′04″N 88°11′31″W / 18.3176792°N 88.1919618°WCoordinates: 18°19′04″N 88°11′31″W / 18.3176792°N 88.1919618°W |
| Area | 21,500 acres (87 km2) |
| Established | 1990 |
| Governing body | Corozal Sustainable Future Initiative |
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Shipstern Conservation and Management Area (Shipstern C&MA) is a protected area located in the Corozal District of northeastern Belize.
Shipstern C&MA protects approximately 21.500 acres (c. 8.700 hectares or 87 km2) of a variety of habitats centered on Shipstern Lagoon, one of the larger inland lagoon systems in Belize. The reserve includes non-contiguous parcels, a larger one covering part of the lagoon itself, and a smaller one protected a small forest lake by the name of Xo-Pol. Habitats include various types of seasonal forests, some of which are unique for Belize. Next to the medium-sized semi-deciduous Yucatan forest, a much rarer type of dry coastal tropical forest also occurs, in Belize found only in Shipstern and in Bacalar Chico National Park, on Ambergris Caye. The government of Belize considers Shipstern Conservation & Management Area to be one of the ten most important nature reserves in Belize.
Shipstern C&MA is owned and managed by the Corozal Sustainable Future Initiative (CSFI) a Belizean registered NGO financed in larger part by a consortium of European zoos, through a charity, the International Tropical Conservation Fund (ITCFund).
The Shipstern Conservation & Management Area, formerly known as Shipstern Nature Reserve, was officially opened by the Minister of Natural Resources in September 1990. Long recognized as being of the more important private protected areas due its geographic position and its biodiversity, it has appeared on official maps ever since its inception. In 2012, the Corozal Sustainable Future Initiative entered the reserve into a trust in perpetuity, whereby on the one hand the owner CSFI commits to manage the reserve as an IUCN Category II national park, and the Government of Belize, on the other hand, has included Shipstern C&MA in the National Protected Area System of Belize.
The name Shipstern reportedly derives from a village within Shipstern forest that was abandoned after the devastating passage of Hurricane Janet in 1955. It may have designated a point in the Lagoon where logging boats could go no further ("ship's turn"), but other origins for the name have been locally known. The name Shipstern today has been given to the lagoon, the forest where the village used to be, as well as to the unexcavated Mayan ceremonial centre just South of Shipstern C&MA.
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