In an effort to share experiences of private and public entities working in ecotourism in Mesoamerica, Rare Center, a North American NGO, has brought together stakeholders from Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, the United States and the Dominican Republic. The arduous search for consensus during a workshop last year has culminated in a regional work plan to be revised and constantly updated by the regional board of directors who were elected on site by the participants.

Special highlights were the presentations of outstanding case studies illustrating the efforts for the effective use of ecotourism as a tool to generate funds for conservation and community development.

Ted Eubank's experience in implementing a bird watching trail throughout the U.S. state of Texas was a glowing example of how the ever growing market segment of bird watching boosted local inhabitant's pride in their natural resources, created jobs and contributed to increasing state tax revenues.

Another result was making local communities understand that the birds and their habitat were worth protecting. Without birds, they would be excluded from the ever growing bird watching industry. The beginnings of the project five years ago were not easy. A well-known obstacle to fellow workshop participants was the weak or non-existent willingness of cooperation among stakeholders, who fail to see the long-term benefits of working together.

The Honduran team presented a case study related to the preparation of a five-year public use plan for the Pico Bonito National Park. This pioneering initiative will undoubtedly benefit the protection and rational use of a territory that provides water to half a million people in the departments of Atlantida, Yoro and Colon.

The park, part of the fragile Mesoamerican biological corridor, hosts an incredible bio-diversity that its managing foundation, FUPNAPIB, is struggling to protect through community development and conservation.

Two examples for both activities are the support provided to rural school education with materials and logistical assistance (with the long-term aim of halting the agricultural frontier with the park) and the encouragement of research on species only found in this park by American and European scientists.

The Belize initiative, although not the first of its kind, has produced a concrete vision and work plan that makes sense if the benefits are understood at grass root level and by all other stakeholders. Lobbying at multiple levels is part of the task of those who were in Belize. Steady jobs, hence better living conditions, needn't be explained. These aims are on every serious political agenda.

Ecotourism is one way to achieve this goal and to protect limited natural resources -- an excellent reason for it to be on anyone's political agenda. When you next enjoy a refreshing glass of water you might consider that.

The Central American Water Tribunal believes that all citizens have the legal right to clean drinking water and wants to prove it in "court."

Based in Costa Rica, the tribunal is an autonomous body whose independent jury will review 12 controversial cases involving water contamination in Central America and deliver a verdict.

While the jury's decisions will have no legal consequences, they can raise public awareness and bring international pressure on those found guilty, according to tribunal legal coordinator Jose Maria Borrero.

He points out that nearly 50 percent of the population in Latin America lacks access to potable water. "It is unjust that so many are dying of thirst," he says.

Borrero also notes that nearly all countries in the region have laws that proclaim citizens have the constitutional right to a clean environment as well as laws prohibiting water contamination, but they are seldom enforced.

Citizen's groups that submitted cases and evidence will hear in early March if their case was selected to be tried. Among the criteria used to select cases are the amount of environmental damage caused; the importance of the ecosystems impacted; the number of people affected; and whether or not local residents support the case.

The jury will be compromised of one representative from each Central American nation plus three international experts. Borrero notes that a priority is to select jury members who are "renowned, respected and have a reputation for being moral and ethical."

In June, the tribunal will invite defendants to appear to present their sides. If they fail to appear, the case will be decided on the evidence submitted. According to tribunal coordinator Javier Bogantes, only cases where the plaintiffs have supplied reliable scientific evidence are selected.

Among the cases the tribunal is reviewing for selection is one against a petroleum company accused of contaminating water in the Peten, Guatemala; another against the International Development Bank and the government of Panama for damage caused by construction of a highway, and a third against a mining company in Nicaragua.

Bogantes reports that one case was already settled out of court. The Committee for the Defense and Development of the Flora and Fauna of the Gulf of Fonseca planned to present a suit against the Honduran government and association of shrimp farmers, holding them responsible for contaminating the gulf's fish-rich waters.

According to the group's director, Jorge Varela, a truce was declared in January when the government placed a moratorium against any further expansion of shrimp farms and established a Gulf of Fonseca Protected Area, for which the conservation group had long been lobbying.

While many factors led to resolution of the conflict, Varela does believe that the accused were well aware of the negative international publicity a "guilty" verdict from the tribunal would have brought.

The tribunal is funded by the Dutch embassy and several European organizations. Bogantes says these groups have thousands of members, "ready to write letters and take action that support" the jury's verdicts.