‘Save the Rain Forest’ Rings Out in Belize : Ecology: Vast conservation park takes shape on land donated by Coca-Cola and environmentalists hope it can expand to include portions of Guatemala and Mexico.

The letter to the Coca-Cola Co. from the editor of “Butterfly News” did not mince words.

Unless Coca-Cola reconsidered a plan to raze 30,000 acres of Belizean tropical forest for use as citrus groves, the British publication, which describes itself as “the popular butterfly and conservation newspaper,” would “put all our weight” behind a campaign by the Friends of the Earth environmentalist group to boycott the soft drink in Europe.

Using the slogan “Save the Rain Forests--Stop Drinking Coke,” the campaign “could have a devastating effect on your European sales,” the February, 1987, letter warned Coca-Cola’s top executives. “This is not blackmail on our part but merely informing you of what your company may face if certain aspects of your Belize ambitions are realized.”

Reluctant to take on the environmentalists and facing other difficulties, Coca-Cola Foods, which had planned to grow and process oranges in freeze-free Belize, soon shelved the project.

The clash between nature lovers and a huge multinational conglomerate over a chunk of this former British colony in Central America illustrated a classic conflict between development and conservation. Proponents of the citrus project argued that the two could coexist and said other factors, including opposition from the Florida citrus lobby and Coca-Cola’s inability to obtain political risk insurance, contributed to the decision to drop the plan.

In any case, the developers’ loss has turned out to be the environmentalists’ gain.

Now, using lands donated by Coca-Cola and purchased from a Belizean owner, a vast conservation area is taking shape in the northwestern corner of Belize. Environmentalists hope that the park, which will be the country’s largest, eventually can be expanded to include adjoining portions of Guatemala and Mexico. The idea is to form a three-country wildlife refuge that will preserve rapidly disappearing tropical forests, avert the extinction of numerous endangered species and safeguard still unexplored ancient Mayan archeological sites from looting.

The project is being managed by a nonprofit Belizean corporation called Program for Belize. It was formed in 1988 and is funded by the Massachusetts Audubon Society and other foreign donors. Located on 152,000 acres designated as the Rio Bravo Conservation Area, the project aims to protect such endangered species as the tapir, jaguar and ocelot, as well as birds such as the great curacao and orange-breasted falcon. It also is intended to serve as a center for botanical and zoological research, environmental education and a budding “ecological tourism” industry.

Jungle resorts in the conservation area, like one already operating on adjacent private land, will offer tourists a “bird watcher’s paradise” and expose them to the sights and sounds of a tropical forest inhabited by animals ranging from spider and howler monkeys to marguay and jaguarundi, program organizers say.

From its inception, the Coca-Cola project had assumed political overtones in Belize, a sparsely populated country--about 180,000 citizens inhabit an area slightly larger than Massachusetts. Among the issues in a narrow election victory by the populist People’s United Party in September was growing concern here over the sale of Belizean territory to foreigners for agribusiness and tourism ventures.

Those concerns were heightened after Barry M. Bowen, a wealthy Belizean businessman who owns Belize’s Coca-Cola distributorship and only brewery, purchased 700,000 acres of mostly forested land--about 12% of the national territory--in 1983. Two years later, facing foreclosure by a Panamanian bank, Bowen sold about 200,000 acres each to Coca-Cola Foods and a partnership of two Texas ranchers.

Coca-Cola wanted to plant citrus on up to 30,000 acres and build a processing plant to produce concentrate for shipment to the United States. The project would have employed 1,200 people and brought in investment of $80 million initially and up to $250 million over 10 years, Bowen said. The Texans intended to clear about 5,000 acres of their land and raise cattle, a plan that is going ahead.

When Coca-Cola decided to shelve its project, it donated 42,000 acres to the Program for Belize and announced plans to sell most of the rest. But the company kept 50,000 acres of the best citrus land in case it opted to revive the project.

The Coca-Cola project “would certainly have changed the economic course of this country,” said Bowen, who still resents the environmentalists’ role in scotching it. The fierce opposition arose, he said, because of a “misapprehension” that Coca-Cola planned to destroy 700,000 acres of virgin rain forest.

“We as a country were devastated by what the environmentalists did to us,” Bowen said. “They tend to get emotional and react without the proper inputs.”

Now Bowen is putting the finishing touches on a nature-tourism complex of cabanas located in the jungle at Chan Chich, an ancient Mayan ceremonial site. Bowen insists that this and other such jungle resorts to be built in the future will help protect some of Belize’s more than 700 Mayan ceremonial sites from destruction by looters.

The Program for Belize also plans its own “ecotourism” ventures and hopes to have four jungle hotels operating within four years, said Joy Grant, the project’s Belizean director.

“We want to show that tourism doesn’t have to be a destructive industry,” she said. “We believe we can maintain the environment and still make money from it.”