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The Central Belize Corridor (CBC) is the most critical and important of three corridors that provide biological connectivity to our Belize National Protected Areas Systems (NPAS)
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Connects Belize’s two largest forest blocks: the privately managed northern forest block (Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA), Yalbac, Laguna Seca and Gallon Jug) and the Maya Mountain Massif (MMM) in the south
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Extends > 750 km² and is comprised of mostly private lands but also communities, and protected areas including: the Labouring Creek Jaguar Corridor Wildlife Sanctuary (LCJCWS), the Peccary Hills National Park, and the Manatee Forest Reserve on national land, and private protected areas such as Runaway Creek and Monkey Bay
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CBC is part of the regional Mesoamerican Biological Corridor and maintains our forests connected to the tri-national Selva Maya forest, the single largest forest block in Mesoamerica, which we share with Mexico and Guatemala.
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Sustains communities with forests that supply timber, game meat, pollinators, other forest products, clean fresh water, land for subsistence agriculture, and livelihoods through tourism and commercial agriculture
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Its seasonally inundated broad-leaved forests and lowland savannas act as flood control zones
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Its broad-leaved forests, especially riparian forests, help maintain the integrity of the Belize River that supplies water to communities and agricultural developments in the corridor area, the Belize River Valley and Belize City; help maintain soil integrity, pollinator services and climate change impact resilience for the commercial agricultural sector.
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Allows wide-ranging animals, including large cats and white-lipped peccary to travel safely between the RBCMA and the MMM in Belize ensuring their health and long-term survival.
Conservation Action Plan:
Our goal: “A functioning Central Belize Corridor through actions that balance our social, cultural and economic well-being,” emphasized the need to create a Conservation Action Plan (CAP) that recognizes a diverse array of interests and reflects the equally diverse stakeholders in the CBC CAP included members and representatives of communities that benefit from the CBC, government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), community-based organizations and private businesses and landowners.
The process to develop a landscape conservation action plan (CAP) for the management of the CBC focused on an area of the corridor approximately 500 km²
Partners:
The development of the Central Belize Corridor (CBC) Conservation Action Plan (CAP) was facilitated and overseen by a 15-member task force officially appointed by the Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, in May 2013 and comprised of individuals representing the UB ERI, MFFSD, MNRA, BAS, TBZ, CBC, RDEDG and TNC.
What We Care About:
Conservation targets within the CBC encompass three ecosystems and three species of concern.
Critical Threats to the CBC:
The table below lists the main threats to the targets of the CBC CAP as identified and ranked by stakeholders.
Strategic Objectives:
A total of eight strategic objectives were formulated for the CBC CAP for implementation over the next three years. Three of these are cross-cutting across all targets; two are focused on terrestrial ecosystem targets, one is focused on freshwater ecosystems and two are focused on the species of concern.
Downlad the Central Belize Corridor Conservation Action Plan 2015-2018 Summary
