The Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future (Belize Fund), created in March 2022 following the Blue Bond initiative, organized a media tour on June 26–27, 2025, to highlight its efforts in managing Belize’s marine protected areas (MPAs). The two-day tour took a group of journalists and environmental experts to the southern waters of Belize, visiting locations such as Gladden Spit, Silk Cayes Marine Reserve, and Laughing Bird Caye National Park. The visit concluded with a trip to Punta Gorda Town and the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve.
To date, the Belize Fund supports 14 MPAs covering 612,994 hectares through both its Grants Award Program and Government Strategic Allocation mechanisms. It continues to provide open calls for funding to advance marine research, enforcement, coral restoration, and biodiversity protection. The visits highlighted the work carried out at the various sites with assistance from the Fund.
The Fund’s Executive Director, Dr. Leandra Cho-Ricketts, stated that one of their primary missions is to provide financial support. “What enables us to do that is funding coming out of the Blue Bonds, so this program is really important for Belize, and the work of the Fund is crucial as it is a partner with the government in ensuring that the monies we have are invested into Belize and into people on the ground,” she explained. “That is very important in trying to make sure we find the right partners to connect with, and support initiatives and projects that can create meaningful and impactful changes, and lasting changes, on the ground.” Ricketts said the various sites visited in southern Belize align with the protection of biodiversity and the management of marine protected areas.
The Fund’s Program Manager, Josue Oliva, added that they ensure selected projects align with at least one of their four thematic areas: protection of biodiversity, sustainable fisheries, climate resilience, or blue business innovation. “We are trying to make funding easier and more accessible. We have also introduced a community grant that allows for emerging organisations, such as youth groups, such as new organisations coming up, grassroots, to actually be able to access funding from us as well for interventions,” he said.
The first stop of the tour was in Placencia Village, from where visits were made to the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve and the Laughing Bird National Park. The two organisations overseeing these areas, the Southern Environmental Association (SEA) and Fragments of Hope, shared their experiences with the Fund’s assistance and the ongoing challenges they face, ranging from surveillance to coral restoration.
SEA’s Executive Director, Elizabeth Muschamp, shared that financing has always been a challenge. With the Fund’s assistance, they have been able to enhance surveillance at Laughing Bird Caye with new sophisticated cameras. She stated that it was an expensive venture to install a tower to set up the cameras. 
Muschamp said that with such technology, they can now better monitor the waters around these protected areas, as the camera has a reach of up to nine nautical miles. “I think every aspect of co-management has its own challenges, and I think it is about thinking of the bigger picture of what we are doing for the Belizean people, and for the world to see,” Muschamp said. “I also think that things like this are what motivates myself and my team to find the necessary solutions and funding and be creative. We need to be creative in finding solutions to address those challenges we may encounter, or we do encounter.”
Muschamp noted that areas like Gladden Spit are renowned for being spawning aggregation sites, where they monitor fish species such as groupers and snappers. She said Gladden Spit is also a popular area to spot whale sharks between March and June each year.
Touching on sharks during the media trip was Kirah Foreman-Castillo, National Coordinator for the local NGO MarAlliance. “We are working in all the different protected areas within the country. In the south, we work along with SEA within the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve, and what we are looking for is what we call megafauna. Megafauna is what everyone knows as those big iconic species like your sharks, your turtles, your rays,” Foreman said. “One of the things southern Belize is known for is whale sharks, and within recent years we are just not seeing those numbers, and as a matter of fact, we are just not seeing them any at all.”
MarAlliance has also benefited from the Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future. According to Foreman, they are trying to figure out what is happening to the whale sharks. “Where have they gone? Will they come back? What’s going on with the other species of sharks, rays, turtles, and the rest of the megafauna within the area?” Foreman said. She added that such data will help them better predict the movement patterns of these animals, which will assist tour operators and guides in planning their tours.
Natasha Gibson with Fragments of Hope attributed the heavy coral bleaching to climate change. “We hardly ever plant coral anymore; thus, we are now doing more monitoring instead,” she said. “In each site, we collect about 200 corals. This is what we survey for the day at each site, about three different sites per day. Laughing Bird Caye was one of the best sites ever when I started to work because it had been hit tremendously by a storm. We had lost over 90% of coral coverage around here. At that point, when I started, the coverage was building up back, everything was thriving and looking great. But climate change has changed everything, leading to devastating losses, especially last year. We have lost tremendous amounts of corals around Laughing Bird Caye.” Gibson said they will continue monitoring the coral situation and try to identify the more resilient species.
The media tour continued on June 27th in the southernmost town of Punta Gorda.
Personnel from the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE) led the activities, which included a nearly two-hour trip to Hunting Caye in the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve. This area comprises of 14 cayes, with some located just a few miles from the maritime boundaries of Guatemala and Honduras.
The protected zones co-managed by TIDE include Hunting Caye, Lime Caye, and Nicolas Caye. Surveillance is carried out by TIDE rangers in collaboration with the Belize Coast Guard (BCG) based at Hunting Caye. These areas are known as fish spawning aggregation sites and are biological hotspots for hundreds of fish species. With assistance from the Fund, TIDE has significantly improved its enforcement and conducts weekly patrols with the BCG.
TIDE’s Project Manager, Florencio Coc, shared that illegal fishing has been a major challenge. “We have confiscated a number of gillnets over time and a number of long lines,” he said. “The enforcement team has been doing a lot of work under the Belize Fund. Without that support, we would not have been able to do as much as we do today.”
TIDE’s Executive Director, Leonardo Chavarria Jr., explained that with the Fund’s support, they have been able to better utilize their resources, such as fuel, and acquire equipment like cameras to enhance their monitoring capabilities. “We used to spend about 150 gallons of fuel every ten days. Now we are starting to see a decrease because of the technology that the Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future has supported us with,” Chavarria said. “This is a long-range camera with which we can detect vessels up to 15 kilometers or ten miles away.”
Chavarria noted that the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve expanded in 2020 to seven times its original size. It now encompasses 321,000 acres. This large area requires constant patrolling and backup, and the BCG plays an essential role in monitoring activity within the reserve.
Lieutenant Allen Armstrong told the media that they look out for illegal fishers as well as banned gear, such as gillnets. He added that they also conduct regular maritime boundary patrols. “This is along the equidistance line. These are patrols that are conducted at least four times a month. Besides that, we also conduct what we call the Corona Reef patrol,” Armstrong said. “The Corona Reef patrol is better known as the Cayman Crown patrol. It is conducted four times a month as well, so we are looking at eight patrols that the Coast Guard does within the Cayman Crown and then along the dotted line for the entire month.”
Armstrong explained that in most cases of illegal fishing, the culprits are Guatemalan nationals. He added that in recent years, they have confiscated just under 8,000 feet of gillnet, but from January to June of this year alone, they have confiscated over 15,000 feet. The BCG also conducts surveillance using drones and, with assistance from the Fund, expects to acquire additional equipment.
The Belize Fund disburses grants to non-government partners and allocates funding to the Government of Belize (GOB) to implement and achieve its conservation commitments. The Belize Fund works in partnership with the GOB to ensure long-term sustainable financing for a resilient and vibrant blue economy for Belize. The Fund has contributed to the expansion of biodiversity protection zones to 25% of Belize’s ocean space.
