have gained the most attention due to their vastness, high biodiversity and biomass, and global importance in the carbon cycle [21]. While these large savanna expanses are undoubtedly important areas of study, smaller landscapes combined with other information can allow researchers to better understand local drivers of vegetation, such as the influence of topography, soil properties, and disturbances. There are isolated savannas in Central America and the Caribbean that occur above and below 1000 m elevation [23]. While all savannas are in part determined by climatic factors, these savannas are heavily influenced by the underlying physical geography. The upland savannas are characterized by weathered soils, fluvial downcutting and riparian forests, and cooler-weather grasses. The lowland savannas are generally located in flat coastal plains and are created by the interaction between climate, topography, drainage, and soils. Both the upland and lowland savannas are also characterized by disturbance in the form of fire and hurricanes [23]. These large areas, underlain by nutrient-poor soil, have resulted in a general lack of human land use since the times of the Maya. More recently, some of these savannas have been designated as protected areas for reasons ranging from biodiversity to economics. National parks and other protected areas are ideal for analyzing localized vegetation dynamics for a variety of reasons. Protected areas theoretically act as a static feature in dynamic human-influenced landscapes, and represent a more natural state of being in a given biome [24]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [25] used remote sensing techniques in Argentinian protected areas to derive the \"baseline/reference\" conditions of various ecosystems as to better assess the impacts of land use and global change. Protected areas act as areas of preservation for biodiversity, and this attracts tourism to boost the economy [12]. In addition, protected areas are often small enough that moderate or fine spatial resolution remotely sensed data is appropriate for an analysis of fine-scale vegetation drivers. Nevertheless, even when coarse imagery is most appropriate, imagery with finer spatial resolution may be able to supplement the analysis. Despite the name, many protected areas are heavily influenced by human involvement or have been in the past. [PERSON] et al. [26] used paleoecological and archaeological evidence of long-term human land use in boreal forest protected areas to denounce the notion that purportedly \"pristine\" forests can be used as ecological references. Hence, protected areas may be an indicator of how local, regional, and global human-environment interactions have affected floral and faunal life in the past and present. This reinforces the need to consider multiple lines of evidence to ascertain the drivers of vegetation change in any landscape [5]. Finally, protected areas are often managed by governments or non-governmental organizations, which means that there are often concerted efforts to maintain and protect the vegetation within a protected area. For example, [PERSON] et al. [27] used dendrochronological and remote sensing techniques to characterize woody encroachment over the past 150 years in a pine savanna in Redwood National Park, California. Using their findings, they created models to predict the spatiotemporal characteristics of future woody encroachment in the park [27]. This research was carried out in Payne's Creek National Park (PCNP) located in the southern coastal plain of Belize. The purpose of this study is to use remotely sensed data to quantify vegetation land cover change from 1975 to 2019, specifically to determine if there has been any woody conversion, as seen in other savanna landscapes globally. This study addresses the following questions: (1) Can a SVM accurately classify the complex savanna landscape of PCNP over time? (2) What is the overall pattern of woody and non-woody conversion in PCNP from 1975 to 2019 using the SVM classifications?