Belize Summary

A cursory assessment of options for private conservation of the ocean and coast in Belize was completed by The Nature Conservancy in 2005. Initial findings indicate that acquisition of property in coastal marine areas is possible in Belize. In addition, leasing of submerged land also appears possible. Conservation easements, on the other hand, do not appear possible.

In Belize, the authority in charge of the coast is the Coastal Zone Management Authority & Institute, which is established under the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Co-operatives.1 The legal framework is the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1998 and revised in 2000 (Chapter 329).

Coastal waters are defined under Belize law as: The sea, as that term is defined herein, and those waters adjacent of the landward line of the adjoining land, or of land connected permanently or intermittently with the sea, which contain a measurable quantity of seawater, including but not limited to sounds, bays, lagoons, ponds and estuaries.2 The same law defines sea as the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean ...including but not limited to harbors, bays, channels, estuaries, salt ponds, and marshes, but excluding streams, tributaries, creeks, and flood control and drainage channels.3

Private Property

The uses and the types of acquisitions that are suitable in coastal waters are determined by the Belizean Coastal Zone Management Plan (Plan).4 The Plan shows that there have been two cases of privately-owned natural reserves in the coastal zone: 1) the Golden Stream, and 2) the Shipstern.5 The Shipstern Nature Reserve includes part of Shipstern Lagoon that, according to the definition of coastal water, is submerged land. 6

Section 2 of the National Lands Act of 1992 says that the seabed is considered part of the National Lands; consequently, acquiring any part of the seabed presumably requires a special process established in the same Act.7 However, the Government of Belize appears able to sell national land in the ordinary manner as seabed acquisition has been accomplished through grants (i.e., a land certificate or a conveyance that passes an estate in fee-simple to the grantee).8

Leases

The same act that applies to the purchases of national land, including the seabed, applies to leases of national land; making it possible to acquire submerged land by leases. According to section 17 of the Act, the lease of national land for more than seven years has special treatment:

[L]eases of national lands exceeding a term of seven years shall be effected by the issue of a fiat by the Minister in one of the forms of the Fourth Schedule and the Registrar shall thereupon enter such grant or lease respectively in the book named in such fiat and every grant or lease shall be deemed to be dated on the day on which the Minister's fiat is dated.

Conservation Easements

According to the Belize Audubon Society, an easement is not permissible under Belize’s real estate laws. For an easement to exist there must be a dominant and subservient tenement, in essence two landowners with adjacent tracts. To achieve the same concept of a conservation easement, restrictive covenants and positive covenants may be put in place at the time of the acquisition of the title. Additionally the two landowners may execute contracts that bind each other which may be recorded as an encumbrance on the title.