Creating A Co-Managed Protected Areas System

The overall objective of this project is to improve effective protection of existing protected areas by encouraging community co-management of these areas. Belize is unique in that it is still dominated by forest cover that provides extensive areas of natural habitat for some 4,000 species of plants, 150 mammal species (15 endangered/threatened), 540 bird species (33 endangered/threatened), and 151 species of amphibians and reptiles, all within a surface area of only 22,965 km2. The long-term conservation of the unique biological diversity of Belize is linked to its citizens and their involvement in conservation planning. By changing the prevalent paradigm of centralized management, and supporting an effective and active management of parks by communities the project will help secure global conservation values, as larger areas will be under effective protection.