Payne's Creek National Park

Payne's Creek National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Map of Belize
Location	Toledo District, Belize
Coordinates	16°19′37″N 88°34′37″W
Area	37,680 acres (152 km2)

Payne's Creek National Park is a nature reserve in the Toledo District of southern Belize. The park encompasses 37,680 acres (152 km²) of land including the dominant broadleaf forest as well as mangrove areas.

Natural history

This national park, which stretches along the lower reaches of the Monkey River, was previously disturbed by banana farming and slash-and-burn agricultural practices; however, in 2007 a verdant broadleaf secondary forest provides habitat for a diverse tropical flora and fauna.

Black howler monkey troops are abundant, each troop maintaining a home range of 40,000 to 70,000 square metres (430,000 to 750,000 sq ft) in this forest(Lumina, 2006).

Maya sites

At least four Maya sites have been discovered in Payne's Creek National Park to date. Included are a site now under water, with rare preserved wooden artifacts and portions of wooden buildings.

The excavations of submerged Mayan saltworks at the Payne's Creek National Park, dating back to 300–900 AD, highlight the usage of stone tools for cutting meat or fish, salting and preserving them within wooden kitchens, in order to be transported to inland markets.

Bibliography

• Toledo Institute Payne's Creek National Park, Belize
• Lumina Tech, "Hydrology and ecology of the Monkey River watershed, southern Belize", 2006