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The history of the Río
Plátano Biosphere Reserve reflects the diverse cultural
and biological values of this region of the Honduran Mosquitia.
In 1960, the Honduran government created the Ciudad Blanca
Archaeological Reserve (c. 5250 km²) for the Plátano
River region and in 1969 declared the region an archaeological
national park.
However, the cultural significance
of the reserve and the vast, relatively undisturbed forests
of the area led to numerous scientific investigations, and
in 1980 the reserve was internationally recognized as a Biosphere
Reserve under UNESCO's
Man and the Biosphere Program. It was the first such reserve
in Central America and was subsequently inscribed on the World
Heritage Site List in 1982.
The reserve was placed on the List
of World Heritage Sites in Danger in 1996 where it currently
remains due to peasant colonization, large-scale clearing
of forests for cattle pasture, illegal timber extraction,
governmental indifference, unregulated hunting and fishing,
theft of archeological artifacts, and population growth.
In 1997, the amplification of the boundaries
of the reserve to the Patuca River in the southeast expanded
the size of the reserve to 8500 km² creating the largest
protected area in the Honduran portion of the Meso-American
Biological Corridor. In accordance with the Biosphere Reserve
concept, the reserve is divided into three areas, the core
zone (almost uninhabited), buffer zone (inhabited by Mestizo
colonists), and cultural zone (inhabited primarily by indigenous
peoples).
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