Financing Coral Reef Conservation: A Case Study on Belize

This Capstone project was prepared for the Global Environment Facility Independent Evaluation Office (GEF-IEO) and used Belize as a case study for coral reef conservation finance. The central question was practical: How does a reef-dependent economy move beyond fragmented grants and donor cycles toward something more stable, scalable, and capable of attracting longer-term private capital?

Belize was the right place to ask that question. Its coral reefs are central to tourism, fisheries, coastal protection, and local livelihoods. At the same time, the country faces the compounding pressures familiar across Small Island Developing States, including climate exposure, fiscal constraints, thin institutions, and reefs under simultaneous threat from heat stress, bleaching, disease, pollution, overfishing, and coastal development. The problem is becoming both more urgent and more expensive.

The report analyzed Belize's reef financing gap, assessed the feasibility of key domestic and external revenue streams, and identified concrete actions GEF could support. Rather than recommending a single instrument, it made the case for system building: strengthening the reef finance architecture, developing a blended-capital platform, and deploying risk-mitigation tools to unlock longer-term investment. The goal was a strategic framework that is immediately useful to the client in Belize and adaptable, with care, to other reef-dependent economies facing similar constraints.