June 26, 2018
Just a stone's throw off the
coast of Belize, brightly colored tropical fish mingle with sharks, manta rays
and sea turtles around a sprawling reef beneath the bright turquoise waters of
the Caribbean.
The Mesoamerican Reef, an
underwater wonder world whose survival was considered to be at risk for years,
may now be removed from UNESCO's list of threatened World Heritage Sites thanks
to bold steps to save it by environmental activists and the Belizean
government.
Second in size only to the Great
Barrier Reef in Australia, the Caribbean reef was
named to the prestigious World Heritage List in 1996, but placed on endangered
status in 2009 because of Belize's plans to allow oil exploration nearby and
the general lack of laws to protect the site.
The warning also encompassed the
mangroves that help protect the reef and serve as a breeding ground for many of
the hundreds of fish species that inhabit the area.
That spurred activists into
action. They organized an informal referendum in 2012 in which 96 percent of
Belizeans voted against offshore
oil exploration, choosing the reef over the potential
economic gains for the poor Central American country.
As the threat to one of its top
tourist attractions began to sink in, the Belizean government adopted a series
of laws to protect the reef—notably one in December that places an indefinite
moratorium on oil exploration.
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