Belize has adopted a nationwide fishing rights program for small-scale fisheries, becoming the first country in the world to place all of its nearshore waters under the stewardship of its fishermen, experts say. The program, which was launched in June, is designed to preserve fish stocks and marine biodiversity on the Belize Barrier Reef, which forms roughly a third of the 600-mile-long (1,000-km) Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second largest reef structure in the world. The Belize Barrier Reef’s corals, mangroves and seagrass provide habitat for dozens of species of reef fish. It is a valuable source of queen conch (Lobatus gigas or Strombus gigas) and spiny lobster (Panulirus argus). But Belizean waters have been overfished. The problem worsened in recent... [Log in to read more]