After declaring independence in 1981,

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

enacted the Wildlife Protection Act, which is the main source of wildlife law in Belize. Wildlife in Belize is defined as any undomesticated mammal, reptile or bird, amphibian and any egg, nest or part or product thereof. Although Belize is only long and a little more than wide, it hosts a remarkable abundance of flora and fauna. It is the home of more than 150 species of mammals, 549 birds, 150 amphibians and reptiles, nearly 600 species of freshwater and marine fish and 3,408 species of vascular plants. The Forest Department under the Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development is the regulatory body that enforces the Wildlife Protection Act. The Wildlife Protection Act's main goal is to rescue the over one hundred globally threatened species in Belize from local extinction. The National List of Critical Native Species includes 11 Critically Endangered Species, 31 Endangered Species and 63 Vulnerable Species. In Belize, threats to wildlife from the

illegal wildlife trade Wildlife trade refers to the of products that are derived from non-domesticated animals or plants usually extracted from their natural environment or raised under controlled conditions. It can involve the trade of living or dead individuals, ti ...

have been, in general, historically marginal; Belize has low

population pressure Population pressure, a term summarizing the stress brought about by an excessive population density and its consequences, is used both in conjunction with human overpopulation and with other animal populations that suffer from too many individuals ...

and large wilderness areas. Parrots are the major species threatened by the wildlife trade. People of all classes keep pet parrots; however, in 2016 the Government of Belize closed the amnesty period for registering parrots already in captivity and began prohibiting the ownership of newly-captured baby parrots under the National Captive Wildlife permit program. Although the government of Belize has imposed conservation measures, the increasing human population of Belize and forest clearance and fragmentation have pressured wildlife; the percentage of

forest cover Forest cover is the amount of forest that covers a particular area of land. It may be measured as relative (in percent) or absolute (in square kilometres/square miles). Around a third of the world's surface is covered with forest, with closed-canop ...

in Belize has declined from 74.4% in 1980 to 60.3% in 2014. In the last five years, the Forest Department has adopted a Wildlife Conservation Program (abbreviated to WCP), which provides active management and protection of wildlife. The legal authority for the Wildlife Conservation Program comes from the Wildlife Protection Act.{{cite web, title=Wildlife Conservation Program (WCP), url=http://forest.gov.bz/programs/wildlife-management/, website=Belize Forest Department, accessdate=17 February 2018 The Program is responsible for implementing the

Convention on Biological Diversity The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity); the sustainable use of its ...

, to which Belize is a party, and meeting Belize's obligation to maintain its threatened species, including those targeted by the wildlife trade. It is also a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which limits trade in threatened wildlife through the CITES permission system. The Wildlife Program enforces these treaties through measures that protect wildlife from hunting, poaching and other extraction activities. To accomplish its conservation-related goals, the Belize Forest Department has a Memorandum of Understandings with rehabilitation and conservation organisations in Belize including

Belize Bird Rescue Belize Bird Rescue (BBR) is an avian rescue and rehabilitation centre in Belize. It is a non-governmental and non-profit organization, and is Belize's only multi-species avian rescue and rehabilitation centre. It operates wholly within Belize un ...

, Wildtracks Rehabilitation Program (Primate and Manatee), The Belize Zoo, The Green Iguana Project, Belize Raptor Center, Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD), The Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic, American Crocodile Education Sanctuary, and Sea to Shore Alliance. The Forest Department has also implemented closed and open seasons for popular hunted games species such as

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

(male and female), armadillo, gibnut,

peccaries A peccary (also javelina or skunk pig) is a medium-sized, pig-like hoofed mammal of the family Tayassuidae (New World pigs). They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North ...

iguanas ''Iguana'' (, ) is a genus of herbivorous lizards that are native to tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his ...

and game birds.

See also

References