On October 15, 2026, as Belize works toward fulfilling the binding targets of its Blue Bond agreement, the national Belize Sustainable Oceans Plan (BSOP) has successfully passed through the House of Representatives. However, the approval has sparked pushback from local fishing communities, who are not opposing the plan’s core conservation goals — but are protesting what they call a broken and exclusionary pre-approval consultation process.
Jorge Aldana, president of the San Pedro Fisherfolk Association, emphasized that fishing communities across the country are fully aligned with the need for ocean conservation. For generations, fisherfolk have depended on healthy marine ecosystems for their livelihoods, making conservation a shared priority rather than an ideological conflict. What the association objects to, Aldana explained, is the government’s decision to skip the promised final round of stakeholder consultations before rushing the legislation through parliament.
The government has set an aggressive timeline to designate protected marine areas by the end of November, but Aldana said that decision was made without any input from the people who rely on those waters for their daily work. “If you are going to craft policies that change how we use our ocean, you have to do it with us, not behind closed doors,” Aldana stated, adding that repeated calls throughout earlier consultations for collaborative decision-making were ignored by regulators. Leaving the groups most impacted by the new regulations out of the final approval process has left fishing communities feeling sidelined and disenfranchised, he said.
In response to the criticism, the Belize Fisheries Department has defended the legislation and the approval process. Adriel Castanedas, acting fisheries administrator, noted that the BSOP is not a final, binding set of restrictions — instead, it establishes an overarching regulatory framework designed to improve the efficiency of ocean management across the country. While Castanedas acknowledged the plan is complex, with many interconnected components, he maintained that the strategy represents a positive step forward for marine conservation in Belize.
Castanedas added that the full text of the plan is publicly available online, and encouraged all concerned stakeholders to review the document, reach out with questions, and engage with regulators as the plan moves to the implementation phase. The Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute is the lead government agency overseeing the rollout of the plan, and Castanedas recommended that fisherfolk with concerns contact the entity directly to share feedback that can shape how rules are put into practice.
The dispute comes as Belize advances on its Blue Bond initiative, a groundbreaking financing mechanism designed to fund marine conservation and sustainable ocean development. The plan’s passage is a key milestone required to meet the bond’s commitments, but the ongoing conflict between fishing communities and regulators highlights the challenge of balancing global conservation targets with the needs of local, industry-dependent populations.