Conservation of Bio-Diversity in the Americas
On June 13, 1992 Belize signed the Convention on Biological Diversity in Rio de Janeiro, and subsequently ratified it in December of 1993. The committee on National Biodiversity was founded in 1995, and in 1998 the Belize National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan were released.
These detailed and insightful evaluations present an assessment of the nation's biodiversity, identify the activities and processes that diminish it, and speak to the actions required to promote conservation of biodiversity. The need for conventions addressing biological diversity and national strategies is evidenced in the alarming estimates of future species loss. E.O. Wilson, citing work done by Simberloff on the basis of area-species relationships and the destruction of rain forests in the New World tropical mainland, suggests that within a century,
"The stage will be set...for the inevitable loss of 12% of the 704 bird species in the Amazon Basin and 15% of the plant species in South and Central America (Wilson 2003:11)."
In response to these losses the sponsors of the Casa Avian Support Alliance (CASA) propose to create a facility and a program that addresses the needs of the avian community and the conservation of biodiversity, each of which are substantial assets of the Belizean people; the facility and program are being developed in recognition of the global consequences of the conservation of Belize's biodiversity with respect to the ecology of the America's.
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