Five Blues Lake National Park, Belize: a cautionary management tale

Karst is inherently dynamic, and this may be manifest in unexpected ways, which may have major implications for management of protected areas, where changes may have major impacts on visitor numbers and revenue streams. In Five Blues Lake National Park, Belize, the principal visitor focus is Five Blues Lake itself. An anomalous feature with characteristics of a karst window or cenote but in the setting of a polje or ponor lake, Five Blues has both surface and underground drainage components. Establishment of the national park proceeded under the impression that the lake was a permanent feature, but over July 20 to 25, 2006, the lake drained rapidly underground. Without the lake, visitor numbers and park revenues declined, and the park was all but abandoned. The lake refilled in 2007, but visitor numbers continue to lag. Management and promotion of hydrologic features within protected areas needs to take such possibilities into account, emphasizing variability and change and avoiding a focus on conditions that may not prevail at any given time.