CLASlite algorithms and social surveys to asses and identify deforestation and forest degradation in Toledo's protected areas and forest ecosystems, Belize

- Increase demand in international markets resulted in forest degradation.
- Communities ranked agriculture as the lowest driver of deforestation.
- Strong significant differences exist between communities regarding deforestation drivers.
- Land and institutional policy and lack of alternative livelihoods are the main drivers of deforestation.

In Belize, the lack of forest degradation and socioeconomic data results in the inability of forest management organizations to make timely assessments and decisions for sustainable forest resource management. This study uses CLASlite algorithms and social surveys to identify drivers, measure, analyze and map deforestation, and forest degradation that occurred in Toledo's ecosystems and Protected Areas as a result of the increased anthropogenic activity reported in 2010-2012. The social surveys indicated that land and institutional policy, distance to markets and lack of alternative livelihoods are the main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. Of importance are the strong significant differences that exist between communities that were less than 2 km from a protected area (CL2K) and communities that were more than 2 km from a protected area (CM2K) regarding property rights (Cramer's V = 0.562, p < 0.001), selective logging (Cramer's V = 0.499, p < 0.001) and soil quality (Cramer's V = 0.434, p < 0.001). The results of the deforestation and forest degradation analysis indicate that in 2009-2011 and 2011-2012 the annual rates of deforestation were 0.75% (2480 ha) and 1.17% (3834 ha) respectively and the annual rates of forest degradation in 2009-2011 and 2011-2012 were 0.09% (307 ha) and 0.33% (1110 ha) respectively. In 2009-2011 only 9.34% of forest loss occurred inside protected areas in comparison to 2011-2012 where 23.97% of forest loss occurred inside protected areas. In 2011-2012 out of the 1110 ha of degradation 30.38% occurred in Lowland broad-leaved wet forest and 19.39% occurred in Sub-montane broad-leaved wet forest. The maps and statistics generated in this study pinpoint in which ecosystem types and protected areas major forest change and forest disturbance occurred. By utilizing the data generated by this study, Belize's forest management organizations will be able to efficiently allocate resources to forested areas that are being threatened; thus, more effectively mitigate deforestation and forest degradation of important forest ecosystems.