EIA Manual Belize Final July 2011

The major threats to the productivity and biodiversity of the marine environment result from human activities on land, in coastal areas as well as further inland. Most of the pollution load entering the oceans, including municipal, industrial and agricultural wastes and run-off emanates from a multitude of land-based activities. Oceans have become the final destination for municipal sewage and solid waste, chemical discharges from factories upstream, fertilizer run-off and other pollution from farms and oil spills. Once unleashed, such pollution can seldom be controlled; it must be stopped at the source.