There are just 240 rangers in Guatemala to protect thousands of hectares of biological reserves that Congress has declared national natural heritage sites. ''When I arrived at the National Protected Areas Council at the beginning of the year, there was one ranger for every 17,000 hectares. Now we have one per 10,000 hectares,'' Ana Luisa Noguera, director of the Council, told Tierramérica. ''Ideally, we would have one ranger to watch over 500 hectares.''

The Laguna del Tigre National Park, in the northern department of Petén, has the most natural resource rangers, with 75, compared with 44 last year, Noguera said.

''Looters of archeological sites or drug traffickers'' take advantage of the staff shortages in the protected areas, she said.

The situation is not likely to improve, given that the Council's budget of 4.3 million dollars for 2004 will be cut to 3.6 million next year.