The Belize Maya Forest Trust (BMFT) is dedicated to preserving this critical ecosystem through monitoring, enforcement, community engagement, and sustainable practices. Global Conservation’s support has enabled BMFT to enhance its capabilities through infrastructure upgrades, equipment acquisition, and expanded patrol efforts.

UPDATE: A total of ten infractions were encountered from January to March 2025; these infractions included undersized product, illegal development, and found property.

In the Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve, which was designated a protected natural area in August 2023 in order to extend protection to the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, members of the Francisco Villa Popular Front have destroyed at least 70 hectares of Mayan jungle to make way for homes, agricultural fields, and livestock pastures.

GC supports the attachment of the Belize Coast Guard to TASA enforcement operations for armed support to deal with the dangerous situation of aggressive illegal fishers as well as narcotics traffickers. Hundreds of tons of cocaine move northward through Belize each year, resulting in people being murdered in the atolls and piracy. By providing critical support to the Coast Guard to help Turneffe Atoll in marine enforcement, we are improving the effectiveness and safety of marine enforcement officers.

Across portions of southeastern Mexico, northern Guatemala, and Belize, the Selva Maya, also known as the Maya Forest, covers an area of 150,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles). Second only to the Amazon, it's Mesoamerica's largest tropical rainforest. The forest, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people, thousands of plant and animal species, and many archeological sites, is rich in biodiversity and human history.

Global Conservation helps fund a major expansion of Calakmul that also now boasts the first Mexican tropical forest reserve. Communities meet to strengthen and support for their lands.

In 2021 a group of over a dozen conservation organizations made a critical purchase of land - in the heart of the Maya Biosphere. Real park protection is needed in the Belize Maya Forest which has few rangers and only one truck. These rangers also lack critical patrolling gear, communications, and surveillance technology. Global Conservation stepped up to provide five years of direct funding for equipment, training, and patrol operations needed to protect these beautiful forests and wildlife habitats.

Programme for Belize (PfB) received a $150,000 grant from Global Conservation to support the protection of the Greater Belize Maya Forest.