Unesco Paper

UNESCO Paper

The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System is the largest barrier coral reef located in the northern hemisphere. The reef is located on the coastal area of Belize connected to the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. The Belize Barrier Reef is 300 kilometers long and together with the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef make up the second largest barrier reef in the world, following the Great Barrier Reef located in Australia (Wikipedia, 2010). The Belize Barrier Reef is a popular tourist destination and this revenue and continued interest helps keep the reserve preserved. According to Wikipedia (2010), "It is Belize's top tourist destination, attracting almost half of its 260,000 visitors, and vital to its fishing industry" (Belize Barrier Reef, para. 1). This reef system contains many natural wonders that include several hundred sand clays, coastal lagoons, estuaries, and offshore atolls. The area is home to many forms of wildlife. Some of the wildlife living in this reef system is endangered and this environment acts as a safe haven to allow the species to continue. Some of this wild life includes manatees, American marine crocodile, marine turtles, and many varieties of exotic birds and fish (World Heritage, 2010).

The barrier reef system consists of seven areas in the region. These seven locations that make up the Belize Barrier Reef are Glovers Reef Marine Reserve, Blue Hole, Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, Bacalar Chico national park and marine reserve, South Wather Caye Marine Reserve, Laughing Bird Caye National Park, and the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve. The area was first referred and inscribed in 1996 as a World Heritage site and in 2009 the status of the area changed to In Danger. The reason listed for this change is that the area is suffering due to excessive development and mangrove cutting (World Heritage Site, 2010).

This barrier reef provides a nurturing ecosystem for many diverse animals, ocean and plant life. The reef allows an environment for thirty six soft coral species and five hundred species of fish to live. Additionally, seventy types of hard coral and hundreds of invertebrate species can be found in this ecosystem. With all of this diversity thriving in this system, what is even more amazing is that only ten percent of this reef system has been researched and that ninety percent is still unexplored. There are countless other species that we have yet to discover. This is one of the reasons that it is vital to protect this area and allow these unknown species to keep thriving (Wikipedia, 2010).

The reef is mostly owned by Belize except for one private investor. The land supports a variety of vegetation that include swamp and marsh land. There are also deciduous forests with multi-level canopies. A main type of vegetation are the seagrass beds that allow many animals refuge and a place to create a small home. Additionally there are many species of algae that are found in this region with Rhipocephalus phoenix, Halimeda incrassata. H. monile, Udotea flabellum and varieties of red algae.

The human population continues to grow and the reef system is a major tourist attraction for sightseers, scuba divers, snorkelers and researchers. The tourism industry is a major player in the economy of Belize. According to The Encyclopedia of Earth (2010), "Currently the main use of the barrier reef ecosystem is for tourism, which is the country's largest source of foreign exchange" (Local Human Population, para. 1). The local population thrives off of the seafood industry and the ocean life is harvested to create this income. Some of this ocean life that is harvested includes all varieties of fish, sharks, finfish, turtles, lobster, sponges and seaweeds (The Encyclopedia of Earth, 2010).

The Belize Barrier Reef system has provided the government of Belize so much revenue through tourism and fishing that they have tried to make an effort in preserving this natural resource. In the 1990's the government of Belize started to address the conservation effort and created a group called the Coastal Zone Management Unit to help provide safeguards and preserve this area. This plan included combining forces from different ministries to help conservation efforts. According to The Encyclopedia of Earth (2010), "The three main ministries involved in coastal management are the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (responsible for marine reserves and fisheries management), the Ministry of Natural Resources (responsible for terrestrial protected areas) and the Ministry of Tourism and Environment"(Conservation Management, para. 2). This plan was to allow an organized approach in creating public awareness of the precious habitat that needed to be preserved in the reef. The specialized unit also implemented monitoring and applied research techniques, assisted in the conversation and management of the reef though policies and legislation (The Encyclopedia of Earth, 2010).

Despite all of the advances in protecting this environment, the barrier reef system is threatened and disintegrating at this time. The barrier reef has to endure the over harvesting that the fishing and tourism industries engage in. Both of these main drivers of the economy have a negative impact