Land-use and demographic change in Belize

Dr David Howard and Dr Patrick Meir

The proposed research project is to evaluate the socio-economic and environmental impacts of recent rapid population increase in Belize. With a current population of 263,000, Belize has undergone a large demographic increase (42%) during the last two decades, primarily as a result of migration from neighbouring states. Recent immigration has impacted on political, social and economic structures, new settlement patterns and the use of existing resources. The influx of this predominantly Spanish-speaking population has significantly altered the historically sensitive balance between mestizo (of Spanish and indigenous ancestry), creole (of African or European descent), Garifuna (descendants of exiled African slave workers from St Vincent) and indigenous groups. The longstanding unease between mestizo and creole political parties and nationalist factions has been exacerbated by economic and social tensions over access to natural resources in the context of a rapidly increasing population. A fifth ethnic group, the Mennonites, descendants of a German-speaking religious sect from Mexico and Canada, is numerically small, but makes a significant contribution to agricultural production and marketing systems in Belize. The political and economic interplay of these ethnicities in the context of resource development, land use change and the production and marketing of agricultural products will form a key aspect of this project.

Belize has significant forest cover (44% of the total land area), but the deforestation rate is high (at 1-1.5% per year). The study will focus on two field sites in Central Belize chosen to exemplify human-affected boundaries between relatively undisturbed vegetation (forest and savanna) and agriculture. Land use in the region is characterised by extraction or conversion to agriculture, and this pattern of change has been accelerated by increasing demographic pressures. Interviews with residents in the two rural locations will provide personal oral histories and an assessment of land use change within living memory as a complementary data component to field observation and the analysis of land-use records. The research will combine backgrounds in human and physical geography and extend the scope of integrated research within the School. The student will receive research training in qualitative and quantitative research methods, and supported in learning Spanish language skills if necessary.