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In the far northwest of Orange Walk district is the Rio Bravo Conservation Area , a 1000-square-kilometre tract designated for tropical forest conservation, research and sustained-yield forest harvests. This conservation success story actually began with a disastrous plan in the mid-1980s to clear the forest, initially to fuel a wood-fired power station and later to provide Coca-Cola with frost-free land to grow citrus. An imaginative project to save the threatened forest, the Programme for Belize , was initiated by the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1988. Funds were raised from corporate donors and conservation organizations but the most widespread support was generated through an ambitious "adopt-an-acre" scheme. Coca-Cola itself, anxious to distance itself from the charge of rainforest destruction, has donated more than 360 square kilometres. Today, rangers patrol the area to prevent illegal logging and to stop farmers encroaching onto the reserve with milpas (slash and burn fields). Thanks to the ban on hunting, the forest teems with wildlife , including all five of Belize's cat species, plus more than 300 types of bird. The guarded boundaries also protect dozens of Maya sites , most of them unexcavated and unrestored, though many have been looted. There's no public transport to Rio Bravo, but if you're staying at La Milpa Field Station you can get a bus (Mon-Sat at 10am) from the side of the fire station in Orange Walk to San Felipe, 37km away, and arrange to be picked up there.
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