Belize has a total of three caves that are legally open and managed by the institute of Archeology. But in recent years as tourism expands and visitor numbers increase, cave exploration, tubing and swimming have become more popular. This is why the Ministry of Culture along with NICH and the Institute of Archeology have joined forces to establish a legal framework for the sustainable management of Belize's caves. The minister explained at today's soft launch.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education and Culture
"Well the whole objective and purpose of the cave management policy is really to put in place really a foundation for the protection, preservation and management sustainable use of our cave systems you know we have wonderful and magnificent caves across our country and so there has been a discussion ongoing for a very long time to make sure that we find the right balance and obviously as you know tourism is very important to our economy and so we are happy to welcome visitors to Belize and give them access to these beautiful archaeological sites but we have a great responsibility and duty especially at the National Institute of Culture and history and the institute of archaeology in particular we make sure that we are putting in policies that ensure the sustainable use of those resources so the right balance that's our duty and obligation to make sure we have these caves for future generations of Belizeans to come so that is really the objective and we put in place a few months ago the legal foundation to make this possible. As you know we amended the NICH act to give more powers to the director of the institute of archaeology to enable the institute of archaeology to collaborate with stakeholders like PACT and FCD and Audubon to make sure we can work together and manage these assists and resources."

It is the first ever cave management policy to be developed and applied that recognizes caves as potential tourism destinations. The Director for the Institute of Archaeology says that while cave tour prices may not see a change, the guidelines and restrictions for tours probably will.

Melissa Badillo, Director, Institute of Archeology
"It is a challenge we can't make, while the cave policy speaks to larger management and the framework for it each case will be you know on its own developing that co management agreement with whatever stakeholder whether it is an NGO or a private entity as each cave system is completely different and unique so we will have to take different things into consideration, The policy now classifies caves into different categories and each will have its own restrictions and guidelines that we will develop a further management agreement that will have the details in there."

"It will be a little bit before you start seeing some of these things but safety is the number one priority in there and ensuring that the cultural materials that are found within caves are protected to the highest level. Along with that we also want to ensure that the natural features of caves are being protected you know we want people to get in there and to have that experience and at the same time we have to do it responsibly in ensuring that we have as minimal impact as possible whether its to the natural features or the cultural features."