Belize boasts approximately 103 protected areas are protected in Belize, making up about 46% of its landmass as protected. This provides various opportunities for travellers to experience natural trails, waterfalls, beautiful marine life, and breathtaking caves.
Go ahead and wander into our most popular and accessible protected sites, teeming with wildlife on and off land. Here’s a list of some of the protected areas and what you can see at each in Belize that you must visit.
Natural Monuments
Victoria Peak Natural Monument: Birds (Crested Guan, White-collared Manakin, parrots, and toucans), wild cats, armadillos, gibnut, and agouti.
Blue Hole Natural Monument: Stalactites at over 100 feet depth, and reef sharks.
Half Moon Caye Natural Monument: Red-footed boobies, magnificent frigatebirds, osprey, egrets, and others.
Nature and Forest Reserves
Mountain Pine Ridge: Wild Cats, and birds (Warbler, Common Crossbill, King Vulture, and Blue-Crowned Motmot, and Keel-Billed toucan).
Chiquibul National Park and Forest Reserve: Scarlet macaws, the Natural Arch-a geographical formation-and the chiquibul cave system (the largest in Central America)
Private Reserves
Community Baboon Sanctuary: Howler monkeys, birds, iguanas, and armadillos.
National Parks
Rio Blanco National Park: Nature trails and waterfalls
Laughing Bird National Park: Birds, sea turtles, nurse sharks, barracuda, and angelfish
Guanacaste National Park: White-tailed deer, jaguarundi, kinkajou, armadillos, birds (blue-crowned motmot, woodpecker, magnolia warbler, and belted kingfisher)
Mayflower Bocawina National Park: nature trails and waterfalls
Billy Barquedier National Park: Nature trails and waterfalls
St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park: Caves, sinkhole, and nature trails
Bird Sanctuaries
Man-O-War Caye: Boobies and frigatebirds
Bird Caye: White Ibis, Double-crested Cormorants, herons, egrets, and anhingas
Wildlife Sanctuaries
Swallow Caye: Manatees
Cockscomb Basin: birds, tapir, and wild cats (jaguar, jaguarundi, puma, margay, and ocelot)
Marine Reserves
Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve: Whale sharks
Turneffe Atoll: White-spotted toadfish, green moray eels, dolphins, trunkfish, eagle rays, giant jewfish, stingrays, sea turtles, and others.
Hol Chan: Stingrays, Nurse sharks, sea turtles
Bacalar Chico: Crocodiles, manatees, wild cats, sea turtles
Glover’s Reef Atoll: Spawning site for the endangered Nassau grouper (closed to fishing)
South Water Caye: Boobies, frigatebirds, black grouper, Nassau grouper, sea turtles, manatees, and spotted eagle rays.
Caye Caulker: Manatees, yellow gorgonians, star coral, and queen angelfish
Original article by PACT
