Belize secures final link in critical wildlife corridor connecting Mesoamerica’s largest forest block

For immediate release
November 10, 2026

The government of Belize has donated more than 3,500 acres to the Maya Forest Corridor Trust, securing the final link in a critical wildlife corridor that connects Mesoamerica’s largest remaining forest block. The milestone completes a conservation effort spanning more than 50,000 acres of forest and savannah within Belize’s Maya Forest Corridor, safeguarding a vital lifeline for jaguars, Baird’s tapirs, ‘hicatee’ (Central American river turtles), and other wildlife that depend on connected forests to survive.

“A forest can only support the full diversity of life if wildlife can move freely through it,” said Chris Jordan, Re:wild’s Latin America director. “Protecting individual places is essential, but so is maintaining the connections between them. Belize is demonstrating what becomes possible when we think bigger and work together to protect ecosystems as a whole.”

The newly donated land completes a continuous stretch of protected corridor lands between the Labouring Creek Jaguar Corridor Wildlife Sanctuary and the Manatee Forest Reserve. This critical passageway helps wildlife move between Belize’s protected areas and the larger Selva Maya Forest landscape spanning Belize, Guatemala and Mexico. Wide-ranging species depend on connected habitats to find food, mates and new territories, maintaining healthy populations across the landscape.

The achievement marks the culmination of years of collaboration between the government of Belize, local communities and conservation organizations working to prevent splitting one of Central America’s Five Great Forests in two. 

Without this corridor, conservationists estimate that jaguars would become locally extinct within 50 years in parts of southern Belize, including areas such as the protected forests of the Maya Mountains. Roads, agricultural expansion, wildfires, transboundary deforestation, and other forms of habitat fragmentation threaten to isolate wildlife populations, making the protection of remaining corridors increasingly urgent.

“This milestone is the result of years of commitment by people and organizations who recognized that protecting individual forests alone would not be enough,” said Elma Kay, chair of the board of directors of the Maya Forest Corridor Trust. “By working together, we have secured a critical piece of Belize’s natural heritage and helped ensure that wildlife can continue moving through these forests for generations to come.”

The Maya Forest Corridor is also a Key Biodiversity Area, meaning that it is critical to the persistence of biodiversity and to the health of the overall planet. Wetlands within the corridor provide natural protection against flooding during severe storms and help create barriers against the spread of wildfires. The forests and wetlands also support local livelihoods and help the region withstand the growing impacts of climate change.

Protecting the corridor also helps preserve Belize’s extraordinary cultural heritage. Runaway Creek, one of the properties within the corridor, contains more than 50 caves where archaeologists have discovered ancient Maya artifacts, including pottery, grinding stones, arrowheads and axeheads.

One cave contains an exceptionally rare painting of a jaguar that Maya artists likely created during a royal ceremony between 100 and 900 A.D. The painting is one of only nine known Maya cave paintings across Central America and the only known example in Belize depicting an animal.

The Maya Forest Corridor Trust and its partners will continue protecting and managing the landscape, addressing threats such as wildfires and habitat fragmentation, and supporting the communities who help care for it.

This project was made possible in part by the generous support of the Wyss Foundation, The Neumann Family, artist Jonas Wood with Art into Acres, the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation, Bobolink Foundation, Rainforest Trust, Focused on Nature, Biome Conservation, Fondation Segré, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Turtle Survival Alliance, Adam McKay and Raymond Ziarno.

Photo: Photo by Robin Moore, Re:wild

Re:wild
Re:wild protects and restores the wild. We have a singular and powerful focus: the wild as the most effective solution to the interconnected climate, biodiversity and human wellbeing crises. Founded by a group of renowned conservation scientists together with Leonardo DiCaprio, Re:wild is a force multiplier that brings together Indigenous peoples, local communities, influential leaders, nongovernmental organizations, governments, companies and the public to protect and rewild at the scale and speed we need. Learn more at rewild.org.

Maya Forest Corridor Trust
The Maya Forest Corridor Trust brings together the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center, the University of Belize Environmental Research Institute, Wildlife Conservation Society, Foundation for Wildlife Conservation, Belize Maya Forest Trust and Rewild to protect and maintain critical habitat connectivity within Belize’s Maya Forest Corridor.

Contact
Lindsay Renick Mayer
Re:wild
lrenickmayer@rewild.org
512-686-6225

Devin Murphy
Re:wild
dmurphy@rewild.org
512-686-6188