page_title: Hol Chan Marine Reserve
section_title: Management and conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Hol Chan Marine Reserve / Management and conservation
caption_attribution_description: Brain coral (Diploria labyrinthiformis) — in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Belize Barrier Reef, Belize. An underwater photograph taken by Dlloyd using a digital camera in Belize.
context_page_description: Hol Chan Marine Reserve is a marine reserve close to Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, off the coast of Belize. It covers approximately 18 km² of coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forest. Hol Chan is Mayan for "little channel".
context_section_description: The reserve is managed by the Hol Chan Marine Reserve Trust Fund Committee, which replaced the informal advisory committee which ran the reserve until 1994. The majority of the funds for the park's upkeep is generated from the fees charged to visitors for access to Zones A and D. These are not collected directly but instead via a yearly licensing scheme which applies to the boats of tour guides. Funding from the WWF ended in 1995.
  The establishment of the reserve in 1987 included four main goals. These were:
  Preserving an area of the coral reef ecosystem
  Providing recreational and tourist services while maintaining the utility of the area for fisheries
  Providing an opportunity for education and research within the park
  Conserving genetic resources
  While fish stocks have increased, the fishing industry has continued to decline, and the management is faced with other problems: clearance of mangroves and other habitats in areas adjacent to the reserve, which affects the reserve but over which the committee has no control. There is an increasing numbers of tourists, which increases revenue to the reserve through fees. However, this situation puts pressure on the facilities both within the reserve and the nearby towns of San Pedro and Caye Caulker. There is a threat to the reserve as the amount of tourists are affecting the life of the corral.
caption: Brain coral
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