Belize is known for its rich marine environment, hosting world-famous coral reefs, over 450 offshore islands, mangroves, and seagrass beds. These habitats are integral to Belize’s two major industries of agriculture and tourism, providing food security, employment, foreign income, and recreation. Belize has an internationally recognised ecotourism industry, benefitting from the country’s diversity of wildlife, cultural hotspots, such as Mayan ruins, and one of the longest barrier reefs in the world.
Belize is also globally recognized as a leader in conservation, retaining 60% of its natural forest cover, with approximately 36% of its land area and 28% of its territorial waters designated as protected areas (PAs) or marine protected areas (MPAs), respectively. Belize has committed to further increasing its marine protection in line with the 30-by-30 initiative and became the first country in the world to completely ban bottom trawling in all their waters, including within their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in December 2010.
The Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) partnered with the Government of Belize to explore opportunities to support effective management of their marine environment. The partnership provides demand-led technical assistance around the three key themes of OCPP: marine biodiversity, marine pollution and sustainable seafood.
The focus of the marine biodiversity theme is to provide support for the Belize marine environment with a focus on its MPA network. See below for more information on the specific activities OCPP is delivering under this theme.
Introduction
Working in partnership with the Government of Belize, OCPP has provided technical assistance to:
- Map relevant stakeholders to ensure inclusive and sustainable marine governance;
- Strengthen existing regulatory frameworks, policies and plans for the marine environment;
- Strengthen marine management, monitoring and enforcement capabilities;
- Increase scientific and technical knowledge by providing access to and/or training in the use of marine management and monitoring tools, data and information.
OCPP work in Belize is being supported in the UK by experts from JNCC (Joint Nature Conservation Committee), the Marine Management Organisation and Cefas. If you have any questions about this work, please contact us.
OCPP would like to take the opportunity to thank all in-country partners for their continued partnership and contributions to OCPP’s work packages.
Protected Area Management Effectiveness (PAME)
PAME assessments are tools used globally to help protected area managers to measure and understand the impact of their management actions on protected areas. They help to track progress towards the goals and objectives of the protected area, identifying priorities to improve future management and enable effective resource allocation.
Belize has a long history of implementing PAME assessments both at an individual site level and at a national level through the National Protected Areas System Management Effectiveness Assessment Tool (NPAS-MEE). OCPP has supported the Government of Belize with a number of activities linked to their work on PAME assessments.
Recommendations for PAME Assessments in Belize’s Marine Environment
In 2022 – 2023 OCPP worked with the Government of Belize and relevant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in Belize’s protected area management, to review the current PAME assessment methodologies, including the NPAS-MEE, that have been used across Belize’s MPA network.
The report provides an introduction to Belize’s marine environment, marine legislation and policy, and current management and monitoring occurring within the MPA network. The report then reviews the various PAME assessment tools that have been used across Belize’s PA network. Recommendations to support the continued improvement of Belize’s PAME assessments are included to support a consistent, streamlined approach across the network, as well as an implementation roadmap.
This map shows Belize’s PA network including the PA expansion areas that are currently being designated. The overlap of protected areas with Nassau Grouper and Species Protection sites, Spawning Aggregation Reserves and coral reefs can also be seen (© The Commonwealth Blue Charter, 2020)
Management Effectiveness Evaluations
The Belize Fisheries Department aims to conduct site level Management Effectiveness Evaluations (MEEs) every year to support management and monitoring of their MPAs. The site level MEEs also provide an audit of information which is used to feed into the national level NPAS-MEE conducted every five years.
In 2023, OCPP funded a local NGO to conduct 14 MEE assessments in 2023 on behalf of the Belize Fisheries Department. Wildtracks also worked with the Belize Fisheries Department and NGO Co-managers to incorporate further climate change indicators into the MEE assessments for the first time. The 14 MEE assessments were used to feed into the 2023 NPAS-MEE.
Green Listing
The Belize Blue Bond requires Belize to be in the process of Green Listing three of its MPAs by 2027. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Green List sets a global standard for protected areas to meet the environmental goals in a fair and effective way. OCPP funded the Protected and Conserved Areas team that lead Green Listing within the IUCN, to provide bespoke support to the Government of Belize to achieve this goal.
To date, OCPP has worked alongside the IUCN team and colleagues in Belize to provide a phased approach to assist Belize in achieving its Green Listing commitment under the Blue Bond.
Details of Phase I and Phase II can be found below. A third phase of work is currently be planned and will look to support delivery of the recommendations outlined in the roadmap. Details to come mid 2025.
Further information on the OCPP funded support can be found on the IUCN website.
Phase I (2023 to 2024)
The first phase aimed to introduce the Green List process to colleagues in Belize and to begin the process towards achieving Green List status for at least three of Belize’s MPAs.
Phase I included:
1. An in-person workshop in September 2023 on 'Achieving fair and effective marine protected and conserved areas in Belize through the IUCN Green List'.
The objectives of the workshop were:
- To familiarise participants with the Green List Standard.
- To share knowledge and experiences in the Green List assessment process.
- To conduct a rapid assessment of each of Belize’s MPAs using the GL IBEX rapid assessment tool.
2. A Report on the effectiveness of 14 marine protected areas in Belize, using the IUCN Green List Standard to benchmark current status and assess performance (June 2024).
- This report provides the results of the GL IBEX rapid assessments, to assist the Government of Belize in identifying which MPAs to select for fast tracking towards Green List standard.
3. The Green List Roadmap for Belize (June 2024).
- The roadmap provides a guide for the implementation of the IUCN Green List Standard across Belize’s MPA network.
4. Initiation of the process to set up a Belize-specific Expert Assessment Group for the Green List (EAGL)(2024).
Chosen MPAs
In November 2024, using the results of the rapid assessments from Phase I and specialist local knowledge of colleagues in the Belize’s Fisheries Department, Ministry of Blue Economy and Marine Conservation (previously Blue Economy and Disaster Risk Management), and MPA co-managers, five MPAs were shortlisted to be fast-tracked towards achieving IUCN Green List status in line with Belize’s Blue Bond commitments.
The chosen sites are:
- Blue Hole Natural Monument
- Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
- Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve
- Half Moon Caye Natural Monument
- Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve
Phase II (2024 to 2025)
Phase II builds on the work completed in Phase I by focussing on the five MPAs chosen for fast tracking towards achieving IUCN Green List status.
Phase II included:
- Selection and approval of the members for the EAGL.
- A second in-person workshop in February 2025 to validate and refine the results of the rapid assessments carried out in Phase I for five shortlisted MPAs.
- A roadmap to achieve the IUCN Green List Standard for the five selected MPAs (May 2025).
Marine Data
Belize collects a huge wealth of data, both within MPAs and in their wider marine environment. The OCPP is working with the Government of Belize and NGOs to support the collection, analysis and use of marine data. For more information see below:
MPA Data Review
In 2022, OCPP worked with stakeholders across Belize to identify what data is currently being collected within Belize’s MPAs, how it is processed, stored, and shared. This report supports the understanding of gaps in data collection, processing and sharing within the MPA network, that may need further support and resources.
This figure shows the wide-range of features and attributes data that are collected across the Belize MPA network.
MPA Data Indicators
One area the MPA data review highlighted needed further work, was the streamlining of the data indicators being used in MPAs to monitor and report on the condition of marine habitats and species, and the prevalence of human pressures. Some data indicators were working very well, including reporting on the health of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, as part of the Healthy Reefs Initiative. However, other indicators differed across the MPAs and/or were not being used across all relevant MPAs, meaning variation in the ability to monitor and report on the health of habitats and species.
In 2024 OCPP began a package of work with the Government of Belize, MPA co-managers and NGOs to identify and prioritise which environmental indicators require further work to ensure consistent monitoring across Belize’s MPA network.
Marine Spatial Data
The Belize Blue Bond also identifies several commitments to developing and implementing a Marine Spatial Plan and an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plan. The mandate for delivering this work is given to the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute (CZMAI).
In 2024 OCPP began work with CZMAI to ensure the marine spatial data that is required to successfully deliver these commitments is available to use. This involved subcontracting a package of work to process the backlog of marine spatial data held by CZMAI and to conduct a new data call to gather further marine spatial data to support the MSP process.
The work undertaken by MarFishEco in partnership with CZMAI, resulted in delivery of:
- Data Curation Guidelines.
- Advancing Marine and Coastal Spatial Data Curation and Management in Belize.
Case Study: Increasing Capacity of In-Country Partners
OCPP has funded training six members of the Compliance and Enforcement Team from the Belize Fisheries Department to attend the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and Regional Security System (RSS) Training Institute for their course on Fisheries Interdiction and Prosecution in 2022 and 2023. OCPP hoped to support further training in 2024, however the course is not going ahead due to other events in the region.
The aim of the course is to heighten awareness, enhance skills and competence of authorised officers who have responsibility for enforcing laws under Fisheries Acts, Regulations and other supporting administrative polices in the Caribbean region.
The objectives of the course were to train officers in the correct interpretation and application of the law and heighten officers’ awareness of relevant legislation. Officers were trained in court procedure when fisheries evidence is presented, the correct procedures for recording information in relation to an offense, and how to compile and document evidence for a case file i.e. (written statements of officers on the scene and also the preparation of comprehensive reports). Finally, officers were trained in how to file and present documents systematically for Fishing Vessel Regulation and Licensing.
Two members of the Belize Fisheries Compliance and Enforcement team praised the course, the professional networks they made, and highlighted how the ‘course will further assist us in the conservation, management and sustainable utilization of the fisheries resources of our individual states and the Caribbean region’.
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