A 2012 survey by the University of Belize Environmental Research Institute (UB ERI) identified numerous data collection efforts that go largely unmanaged, un-analyzed and unused in national plans, policies, legislation and/or management interventions. This project will seek to compile and analyze several bird datasets—an estimated 70 per cent of the data highlighted in the survey—and publicly disseminate the results through eBird and the GBIF network.
By establishing a sustainable system for properly managing data at scale, the project hopes to improve Belize's capacity for informing decisions around, for example, its 103 protected areas, which encompass about 39% of the nation's land and 28% of its territory. Illegal extraction and agriculture are degrading or converting habitat in most Belizean protected areas, and, with a 2015 law that allows changes in current protection designations to allow increased use demands, sound decision-making witll rely on better data on biodiversity change and ecological function.
