Belize News

es Kaufman set me straight on the paradox that is Lighthouse Reef Atoll, a cluster of five islands some 50 miles off the coast of Belize in the emerald blue…

If you were to fly over Central America on a small plane, from north to south, starting in Guatemala and ending in Panama, you'd be able to see isolated yet…

From Laos to Belize, forest personnel use the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) to more efficiently anticipate and combat wildlife crime.

An assessment of ecosystem health in the Mesoamerican Reef found that marine protected areas (MPAs) are aiding greatly in its recovery as coral cover slowly expanding. Coral cover in the…

o offshore oil exploration will be permitted along the Belize Barrier Reef or within the country's seven World Heritage Site areas, the government of Belize announced this month. The UNESCO…

The United Nations today announced 21 winners of the 2015 Equator Prize, a prestigious award that recognizes community-led environmental initiatives. The winners, selected from a pool of 1,461 nominations across…

Belize's Great Blue Hole, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that would be included in areas opened to oil and gas drilling under a new proposal from the Belizean…

Hanging an octopus to dry. Courtesy of the Skoll Foundation. A program that helps restore overfished areas through community-based marine conservation has won the Skoll Foundation's top prize for social…

Click charts to enlarge Loss of tropical forests accelerated roughly 60 percent during the 2000s, argues a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The findings contradict previous research…

Jungle in Belize. New research finds Belize has been drying out for over a century, likely due to pollution from burning fossil fuels in the northern hemisphere which has left…

An interview with Alan Rabinowitz, author of the new book, An Indomitable Beast: the Journey of the Jaguar Female jaguar (staring into camera) with subadult male offspring moving through an…

Rainforest logging in Borneo Carbon emissions from selective logging operations in tropical rainforests are roughly a sixth of those from outright forest clearing, finds a new study that evaluated 13…

From massive hotel development through the agriculture industry, humans are destroying the second largest barrier reef in the world: the Mesoamerican Reef. Although global climate change and its effects on…

Rosewood logging in Belize. Photo by: Will Maheia. In Belize, the uncontrolled and often illegal harvesting of rosewood has been, and still is, one of the major environmental issues in…

Dawn breaking over Black Creek, Sarstoon Temash National Park. Photo by: Robin Oisín Llewellyn. The Belizean government has approved an application by US Capital Energy to drill exploratory wells for…

Deforestation in Belize has accelerated since late 2010, reports a new satellite-based assessment of the tiny Central American country's forest cover by CATHALAC (the Water Center for the Humid Tropics…

Aerial view of the burned bog in Sarstoon Temash National Park. Prior to burning, the bog would have appeared florescent green due to the sphanum moss. Photo by: SATIIM. At…

Illegally harvested rosewood from the Sarstoon Temash National Park in Belize. Photo by: Anisario Cal. The Belizean Government has banned the harvesting and export of rosewood with immediate effect, in…

Slash-and-burn agriculture in Belize. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A NASA funded expedition using airborne lasers to study ancient Mayan ruins has also documented widespread illegal deforestation in the Caracol…

Remote camera traps, which have become a hugely important conservation tool on land during the past decade, have now gone underwater. Marine biologists have used underwater video camera traps to…

Ripipteryx mopana, a new species discovered in Belize. Photo by: Sam W. Heads, Steven J. Taylor. Scientists have discovered the first ever insect in the Ripipterygidae family in Belize. Measuring…

Ranger photographing US Capital Energy workers. Photo by Robin Oisín Llewellyn. In the Belizean rainforest two rangers look up and down a straight path hacked through the jungle and take…

Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata) in Belize. Photo by Rhett Butler. In recognition of the American holiday of Thanksgiving, this is the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata), a species of wild turkey…

Scientists have confirmed the presence of a harpy eagle nest in the Maya Mountains of Belize. The discovery represents the most northerly breeding pair in the Americas, and signals a…

This Ceiba tree fell on the jaguar Junior Buddy's exhibit during Hurricane Richard; Junior was unharmed. Note the fencing on the right. Image and caption courtesy of the Belize Zoo…

Deforestation in Belize amounts to an area the size of Rhode Island since 1980, according to new assessment. Forests in Belize have been cleared at a rate of nearly 10,000…

Classical musical genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, probably never expected his music to inspire mycologists, but fungi researchers have announced in the journal Mycologia that two new species of glowing mushroom…

Coral reefs in Belize, considered to be some of the most pristine in the west, have secured additional protections. Rene Montero, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, signed a set…

Political drivers such as those related to territorial disputes between tropical countries can result in direct and indirect ramifications negatively impacting conservation of native ecosystems report Arlenie Perez, Chuang Chin-Ta…

Services provided by coral reefs and mangroves in Belize are worth US$395 million to US$559 million per year, or 30 to 45 percent of the Central American country's GDP —…