Belize’s blue reputation vs. reef reality: Marine conservation wins, and what’s missing (commentary)

Belize’s blue reputation vs. reef reality: Marine conservation wins, and what’s missing (commentary)

Belize sells itself as a small-country answer to a big problem: how to keep the sea alive and the people who depend on it working. The pitch is strong. A debt-for-nature “blue bond” shaved public debt and created a 20-year conservation finance stream. Targets for 30% ocean protection by 2026 are now embedded in policy. The press has been kind. So have donors. Yet beneath the awards and ribbon cuttings sits a harder question: do the reefs and fis…