Since declaring independence in 1981, Belize has enacted many environmental protection laws aimed at the preservation of the country's natural and cultural heritage, as well as its wealth of natural resources. These acts have established a number of different types of protected areas, with each category having its own set of regulations dictating public access, resource extraction, land use and ownership.
Roughly 26% (2.6 million acres, or 1.22 million hectares) of Belizean land and sea is preserved within a total of 95 reserves, which vary in their purpose and level of protection.[1][2] This network of protected areas exists under a variety of management structures:[3]
- 1,900,469 acres (769,093 ha) of terrestrial reserves;
- 392,970 acres (159,030 ha) of marine reserves;
- 317,615 acres (128,534 ha) protected through officially recognised private conservation initiatives.
However, most of these protected areas are actually for the management of resource use and extraction, rather than for the preservation of the environment.[1][2]
- ^ a b Ramos, Adele (2 July 2010). "Belize protected areas 26% - not 40-odd percent". Amandala News Online. Archived from the original on 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-04-27.
- ^ a b Meerman, Jan (2005). "National Protected Areas Analysis" (PDF). National Protected Areas Policy & Systems Plan. Government of Belize, Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment. Retrieved 2011-04-27.
- ^ Biodiversity & Environmental Resource Data System. "Protected Areas". Belize Tropical Forest Studies. Retrieved 2011-04-29.