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Belize Barrier Reef System de-listed from World Heritage in Danger

By on June 26, 2018

Belize’s Barrier Reef System
Author: Wata51
Copyright: © Shutterstock.com

Belmopan, CAYO. Tuesday, June 26, 2018. The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System is no longer listed as a “World Heritage in Danger.”

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today announced that the World Heritage Committee, had formally decided to delist the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System during its ongoing 42nd session which is ongoing in Manama, Bahrain.

The official UNESCO announcement notes that “the Committee considered that safeguarding measures taken by the country, notably the introduction of a moratorium on oil exploration in the entire maritime zone of Belize and the strengthening of forestry regulations allowing for better protection of mangroves, warranted the removal of the site from the World Heritage List in Danger.”

The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996, is an outstanding natural system consisting of the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere, offshore atolls, several hundred sand cays, mangrove forests, coastal lagoons and estuaries.

The system’s seven sites illustrate the evolutionary history of reef development and are a significant habitat for threatened species, including the marine turtle, the manatee and the American marine crocodile.

Belize is being represented at the World Heritage Committee meeting by Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber and Minister of the Environment Dr. Omar Figueroa.

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