HETA is a legally established and registered community-based professional organization of certified and trained tour guides from the villages around FBLNP. As a professional organization, HETA provides a recognized association that can represent the interests of its members relative to those issues affecting tour guiding in Belize, including rules, regulations, and best practices. Through this organization tour guides also have access to advanced training in areas of birding, wilderness first aid and rescue, water safety and rescue, and other areas. The word ?Environmental? was added to underscore the interest in these tour guides contributing to the conservation of natural resources so important to their professions. They participate in international bird surveys and are interested in being involved in research, assessment, and monitoring activities, including reporting illegal activities observed to appropriate authorities. As an environmentally focused organization, HETA has entered into an agreement with the Forest Department to become the co-management of FBLNP, a very special protected area for this group of local professionals, many of whom have grown up with this park. HETA has access to many different environmental professionals, including the staff of the Forest Department. HETA members have prioritized accessing funding through PACT which is expected to be available to hire a qualified team to implement area assessment and mapping, drafting of the management plan, and assisting in the socialization of the plan. Targeted objectives of the GEF SGP involve hiring qualified people to conduct the road work and re-construction of the roof to the pavilion and the outhouses. As co-management, HETA members will be overseeing these activities to ensure work quality, and will be directly involved in clearing trails, positioning signs, GPS mapping trails, and producing trail maps. This is a relatively new organization that has not developed a history of activities and experience. However, some of the association members have been involved in research, assessment, and monitoring projects within the local area and all the members have lifetimes of experience within the park landscape. Some members are getting training in organizational and park management. Members of the organization are not paid but conduct their work on a volunteer basis. They are indirectly rewarded through use of the area for their tour groups and in the knowledge that they are contributing to helping protect and maintain FBLNP. HETA is made up of the typical organizational positions, including a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and assistants to these persons occupying these positions. The organization has a low budget, being sustained by the dues each member pays. HETA is registered with the Government of Belize and is part of the national network of registered tour guide associations within the country. As an organization, they deal closely with and are governed by the rules and regulations imposed by the Belize Tourism Board. Tour guides represent a new professional group within these communities and as a group they play key roles in civic issues and duties. Although there are currently no female tour guides within this area, HETA is open to including women who enter this profession and encourage that eventuality. As civic minded citizens involved in local affairs, attending community meetings, and taking part in important decisions, HETA members are leaders within their communities and routinely work with women, indigenous peoples, youth, and elderly.

The main strength of the project is that it gave HETA an opportunity to be an actively engage in co-management of the FBLNP. The activities carried out in the project contributed to the conversion of the FBLNP from a ?paper park? to an actively managed protected area. The experience gained by HETA gave them a sense of the level of effort and organization that is required to properly co-manage a national park. Another strength of the project was that it created a sense of community and ownership of the FBLNP among the people of St. Margaret and Armenia. Some residents visited FBLNP for the first time and are now truly appreciative of its value.

There is a committed effort to set up and maintain ranger and user presence in the park to help reduce illegal activities currently on-going in the area. Once it is functional again, there is discussion about reviving bed and breakfast facilities and restaurants within St. Margaret?s Village and possible farm tours offered by local participating farmers. Through this new approach, the park will help generate livelihood enhancement opportunities for community members within the buffer villages through service fees and generate maintenance income from park fees.

This project initiative will be presented to members of the three communities during community meetings and their input and ideas recorded and considered, with plan being modified as needed. Members of communities interested in clearing sites and trails, and in the installation of signs will be lined up. Trail clearing activity shall be conducted under close supervision of HETA members. Signs shall be carefully placed, and installation supervised by HETA members. Those recommended community members who are involved in road work and construction shall be approached to conduct the road work and restoration of the facilities. The objective is to hire local people where possible for the project, increasing the community connection to the park. Three community representatives, two HETA members, a teacher from one of the schools, and a youth shall be on the project committee as described above. The project manager may or may not be from these communities. In addition, a community day will be planned for the fifth month, after completion of the road, construction projects, and trails. This will be a day at the park set up to welcome members from all three communities, with the services of a bus to provide transportation to and from the park. Besides picnicking, hiking, and swimming, there shall be early morning birding, canoe tours of the lake, guided hikes, and s streamside biology laboratory set up at lakeside, with stereomicroscopes, aquariums, sorting pans, water quality equipment, camera traps, and UB and Galen students and faculty to assist those who wish to see what creatures live in the lake, answer any questions about the lake ecology and geology, and to listen to any stories and observations community members make

Youth are very important to the management of FBLNP and always have been from the founding of the park. Many of the HETA members were volunteers in the park during their childhood and will carry on the tradition, introducing their children to the park and its natural history. Youth groups and schools within the buffer communities shall be targeted through outreach initiatives, including school visits, organized and scheduled school trips to the park, volunteer programs, junior guides, youth club activities and other opportunities to engage youth in tree planting, wildlife monitoring, trail maintenance, and other park management needs. Those youth entering university programs in biology, natural resource management, environmental science, and other related areas of study shall be encouraged to conduct project work with the park through HETA and the Forest Department, targeting projects that help inform and support management strategies. Local youth shall realize their connection to FBLNP through these organized activities and appreciate their rights to access and sustainability use these natural resources according to established management policies and recognize the park as their natural inheritance to carry forward for the next generation to enjoy.