Fwd: Please Help, Tikal National Park Under Severe Forest Fires

attached mail follows:

attached mail follows:

Dear Friends:

    This time news are not good for our Cultural Heritage and I need some help
> and/or advice of what to do. Although I am no longer the Sub-Director of
the Institute of Anthropology, I am still deeply involved with the
institution and Tikal National Park.

    Tikal, an archaeological and natural reserve, with an area of 576 square
kilometers inside the Maya Biosphere Reserve in southern Mesoamerica, is
currently under severe forest fires. Although the authorities of Tikal
National Park had an emergency plan ready for the dry season and have been
part of the COE (Comite de Emergencia contra Incendios/ Emergency
Committee Against Forest Fires), the lack of enough equipment and personnel
is causing almost a collapse.

    The Administrator of the Park, the archaeologist, and biologists of the
site are currently in a state of desperation. Believe it or not, one of
them started crying on the phone some minutes ago when he called. They have
been coordinating, against the fires, the 44 employees of Tikal and
several volunteers inside the rainforest. Almost since April 13, they
have been eating once a day and sleeping around 4 hours per night. An
extremely dry summer and unusual winds multiplied the 5 fires that were
located inside the park (which I personally saw the 29th of April), to 10
!!! Most of them were provoked by illegal hunters and xateros and are
growing in size each hour.

    Until now, Tikal has received the special assistance of a helicopter, two
pilots, and one mechanic from TELMEX, the Mexican phone company, which has
been carrying people, equipment, food, and water to the burning areas of
the rainforest. Also, the National Army has been helping, but with a
maximum of 30 soldiers, since others areas of the Peten are burning too and
the army was distributed in all Peten. Representatives of institutions such
as the Wildlife Conservation Soceity (WCS), INAB (Instituto Nacional de
Bosques) and CONAP (Consejo Nacional de Areas Protegidas) are now being
able to provide some help, because they were also fighting fires in other
areas before.

    Equipment is scarce, food and water are running out, and people are not
enough any more. PLEASE IF THERE IS ANYONE THAT CAN GIVE TIKAL A HAND, WE
URGENTLY NEED machetes, chain saws, camel back water containers and plenty
of food and water. If there is any possibility of having volunteers,
helicopters, and other basic equipment against fires, we will appreciate it
very much. TIKAL DOESN'T NEED MONEY IN CASH, but equipment, people, and
canned food and water.

    If there is any possibility of sending any kind of help, please reply to
this e-mail or send a fax to:

Sofia Paredes Maury, MA
tel-fax (502) 591-0888
Guatemala

    I have available, in Spanish, preliminary reports of the forest fires @
Tikal if someone needs to verify the situation. Thank you very much,

Sofia
Received on Wed May 10 10:30:10 2000