Belize's natural capital demonstrates real potential in driving the country’s development agenda. However, there is a clear need to mainstream adequate environmental protection and sustainable development policies and strategies, including climate change, into the various sector national plans and programmes to protect the integrity of the resource base. Belize’s current path towards a macroeconomic situation generates important concerns for the future of the environment in Belize. It is feared that the need for the country to recover from recent economic downturns will force an intensive and unsustainable use of its natural resources. At the same time, Belize is considered a country that is vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. With that said, national and sector planning bodies need to include considerations of climate change/ climate variability, adaptation and mitigation in planning deliberations and processes.

Existing measures and programmes currently in place at the national level in Belize are based on legislation enacted by the Government of Belize. The legal framework provides the basis on which biodiversity may be integrated into regulations and policies. Presently, Belize has a number of significant pieces of legislations, some of which are in the process of being amended, and others, which require amending to meet tomorrow’s needs. Some laws directly governing sustainable use and protection of biodiversity that are of relevance to this project were analysed.

The project analysed key relevant policy instruments to determine whether they support or undermine climate-compatible tourism development based on the integration of sustainable tourism measures, maintenance of ecosystems health and function, and climate adaptation/resilience building

Picture: F. Ermert