Coastal ecosystems of Belize are threatened by both local threats (coastal development, pollution, sediments, overfishing) and broader scale threats (transboundary sediment and pollution, disease, and bleaching). Pressure on the reefs will continue to grow as development increases, but better management can help reduce the threat and protect these valuable ecosystems in order to maintain their sustainable use.

Disparate information is available on threats to and condition of coral reefs in Belize. Several Belizean NGOs have done assessments of resources within selected marine protected areas, and have detailed information for these areas. Detailed local scale information is very useful for determining the local impact of human activities, but capturing the processes and human activities that operate at a larger spatial scale is more challenging.

A local-level Reefs at Risk analysis, Reefs at Risk Belize is centered on the use of a geographical information system (GIS) to visualize and analyze the relationship between human activities and coral reef health, and how to standardize and integrate sources of data and make the information useful and available to management. The Reefs at Risk Belize project produced an atlas of threats to these precious resources - the Belize Coastal Threat Atlas, as well as a CD of all GIS data collected or developed under the project - the Belize Coastal Data CD.

Financial support for the Reefs at Risk Belize project was generously provided by the Oak Foundation.