Payne's Creek National Park

National park in Belize

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 / 16.327°N 88.577°W / 16.327; -88.577
Area	37,680 acres (152 km)

Payne's Creek National Park is a nature reserve in the Toledo District of southern Belize. The park encompasses 37,680 acres (152 km) 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

References

"Paynes Creek National Park". protectedplanet.net.
Toledo Institute Payne's Creek National Park, Belize
"LSU Works to Preserve Underwater Maya Sites in Belize". Louisiana State University.
McKillop, Heather; Aoyama, Kazuo (8 October 2018). "Salt and marine products in the Classic Maya economy from use-wear study of stone tools". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (43). PNAS: 10948–10952. doi:10.1073/pnas.1803639115. PMC 6205481. PMID 30297416.

v t e Protected areas of Belize
National parks	Belize portal Aguas Turbias Bacalar Chico Billy Barquedier Chiquibul Five Blues Lake Gra Gra Lagoon Guanacaste Honey Camp Laughing Bird Caye Mayflower Bocawina Monkey Bay Elijio Panti Payne's Creek Peccary Hills Río Blanco Sarstoon-Temash St. Herman's Blue Hole
Natural monuments	Actun Tunichil Muknal Great Blue Hole Half Moon Caye Thousand Foot Falls Victoria Peak
Nature reserves	Bladen Burdon Canal Tapir Mountain
Wildlife sanctuaries	Aguacaliente Cockscomb Basin Corozal Bay Crooked Tree Gales Point Spanish Creek Swallow Caye
Forest reserves	Caye Caulker Chiquibul Columbia River Deep River Fresh Water Creek Grants Work Machaca Manatee Mango Creek Monkey Caye Mountain Pine Ridge Maya Mountain Sibun Sittee River Swasey Bladen Vaca
Marine reserves	Bacalar Chico Caye Caulker Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Glover's Reef Hol Chan Port Honduras Sapodilla Cayes South Water Caye
Archaeological reserves	Altun Ha Barton Creek Cahal Pech Caracol Cerro Maya El Pilar Lamanai Lubaantun Marco Gonzalez Nim Li Punit Nohoch Che'en Santa Rita Serpon Sugar Mill Xunantunich Yarborough Cemetery
Other reserves	Aguacate Lagoon Bird sanctuaries Block 127 Community Baboon Sanctuary Golden Stream Monkey Bay Río Bravo Runaway Creek Shipstern

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