Every two years, marine conservation groups get together to conduct an eco-audit of the Mesoamerican Reef System. There have been 3 eco-audits done to look at what Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, have done to improve or worsen the health and sustainability of the Barrier Reef.
Today, the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative released the 2016 Eco-Audit, and it shows that once again, Belize has been making incremental progress. In 2014, the audit gave Belize a grade 57%, and this time around, Belize got a 68%. That's still a C, but the experts say that it's a lot to be proud of since Belize remains a trend-setter when it comes to Marine resources management. Here's an excerpt from the presenters on the findings of the Eco-Audit:
Dr. Melanie McField - Director, Healthy Reefs for Healthy People
"For this year we have 62% overall. So we are really continuing to get up there. We are still in that fair range. The marine protected areas is high. The research and education is high and the same to private sector and very lowest ones, sewage and sanitation. And that something we 
are going to talk about more I think in the Belize section where we really need to bring other players to the table, because its not necessarily this set of people that we collaborate with day to day that can fix the sewage and sanitation problems."
Roberto Pott, Belize Coordinator, Healthy Reefs
"We are in the 60's, we might be comfortable with that, but I don't want us to become complacent. There is lot of work to be done. But it's looking promising. We'll probably get a good grade next report card. But it's not about the grade, it's about what we see happen on the ground and ensuring that we benefit from it, Belizeans benefit and our economic development."
"It's important that Belizeans know that we are the trendsetters. Sometimes we are very hard on ourselves saying that everything that comes to Belize we break up, but we've done well when it comes to the management our resources and we've put in place the regulations. We have management presence out in the marine areas as so we've done well. When we look at the teams related to marine protected areas and ecosystem based fisheries management. What we need to follow through is some of the land-based issues; sewage management. That's a burning issue for Belize and it's becoming more expensive as we developed further and so it's important that we try and find creative solutions to those now. So we are doing well. I mean, we are getting a passing mark. We are leading the region. But this is not about the grade. This is about trying to ensure that we have access to those resources and we continue to benefit with the development in Belize that depend on those very coral reef resources."
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