BELIZE RIVER

also called Old River, river rising in northeastern Guatemala as the Ro Mopn and flows about 180 mi (290 km) northeast past Benque Viejo, San Ignacio (El Cayo), and Roaring Creek (site of Belmopan, capital of Belize [formerly British Honduras]) into the Caribbean Sea at Belize City. During the pre-Columbian era, it served as one of the main trade arteries of the Maya Indians. It is navigable for small craft with enclosed propellers from Belize City as far as the Guatemalan border and is used to carry lumber for export and chicle to market areas. The economy Services The service sector of the economy-including trade, tourism, and administration-has accounted for the largest share of the gross national product (GNP) since the early 1980s, when it overtook agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Nearly half the labour force and the GNP are now sustained by services. Tourism expanded rapidly in the 1980s and '90s and became a major source of foreign exchange. Fishing, boating, and swimming along the reef are popular, and ecotourism in the interior has grown. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing The export of timber was for years the basis of the Belizean economy, but by 1960 the combined value of sugar and citrus exports exceeded that of timber. Sugar is now the main source of export revenue. Chicle, used in the manufacture of chewing gum, is obtained from the sapodilla tree, and mahogany, pine, cedar, and rosewood have increased in economic importance. Furniture and timber for utility poles are the major products of the forestry industry, which includes many sawmills. More than one-fourth of the population is engaged in agriculture. Sugarcane is grown in Corozal and Orange Walk districts, and sugar is exported to the United States and the European Union. In addition, some sugar is converted into molasses for rum distillation. In the latter part of the 20th century, sugar production increased tenfold, but sharp fluctuations in the world market have left the Belizean economy vulnerable. Also affected by international price swings are citrus crops (oranges and grapefruit) and bananas, which are grown mainly in the Stann Creek and Cayo areas, south and west of Belize City. Rice is raised on large mechanized farms in the Belize River valley, while corn (maize), roots and tubers, red kidney beans, and vegetables are raised throughout the country, mostly by small farmers. Marijuana is widely, though illegally, grown in Belize for contraband export to the United States, and in the 1980s and '90s isolated Belizean airstrips became transshipment or refueling points for cocaine smuggling. The Mennonite community at Spanish Lookout has developed dairy production and has introduced large-scale chicken farming. Beef cattle and pigs are raised in many parts of Belize. Fishing for lobster, shrimp, scale fish, conch, and sea turtles is conducted mainly by several cooperatives, some of which have freezing plants. Exports of seafood to the United States are substantial. The land Relief and drainage Line of waves breaking against the extensive Belize Barrier Reef within view of a forested offshore 1/4 Situated south of the Yucatn Peninsula, Belize is a land of mountains, swamps, and tropical jungle. The southern half of the country is dominated by the rugged Maya Mountains, a plateau of igneous rock cut by erosion into hills and valleys that stretch in a southwesterly to northeasterly direction. The Cockscomb Range, a spur of the Maya Mountains, runs toward the sea and culminates in Victoria Peak, which at an elevation of 3,681 feet (1,122 metres) is the highest point in Belize. The northern half of the country consists of limestone lowlands and swamps less than 200 feet (60 metres) above sea level. The lowlands are drained by the navigable Belize River (on which stands Belize City), the New River, and the Hondo River (which forms the northern frontier with Mexico). Both the New and the Hondo rivers drain into Chetumal Bay to the north. South of Belize City the coastal plain is crossed by short river valleys. Along the coast is Belize Barrier Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world, which is fringed by dozens of small islands called cays (see photograph). Climate Belize has a subtropical climate, with a well-marked dry season from late February to May and a wet season from June to November that is interrupted from August to September by another dry season. The mean temperature at Belize City is 74 F (23 C) in December and 84 F (27 C) in July. The mean annual rainfall increases sharply from 51 inches (1,295 mm) at Corozal on the northern frontier to 175 inches (4,445 mm) at Punta Gorda in the south, while at Belize City rainfall amounts to 74 inches (1,880 mm). There are, however, considerable yearly variations in these amounts throughout the country. Trade winds blow onshore most of the year, and from September to December northerly winds bring cooler, drier air. Hurricanes are a threat from July through November. The people Many Belizeans are of mixed ancestry, most of them descendant of immigrants. Mestizos (of mixed Maya Indian and European ancestry) are the largest ethnic group, accounting for more than two-fifths of the population. English-speaking people of largely African and African-European ancestry, who are called Creoles, account for nearly one-third of the population and predominate in the central coastal regions. Mestizos predominate in the more sparsely inhabited interior, along with the Maya, who account for one-ninth of the population. Several thousand Garifuna, formerly called Black Caribs, who are descendants of the Carib Indians and Africans exiled from British colonies in the eastern Caribbean (Lesser Antilles) in the 18th century, live in communities on the south coast. People of European and East Indian ancestry are also present, as are smaller numbers of Chinese, Arabs, and others. English is the official language, but most of the population also speak a Creole patois. The Mestizos speak Spanish, and the Maya speak Spanish or Yucatec, Mopan, or Kekchi Maya. The Garifuna speak their own Arawakan-based language and also English or Spanish. Many Belizeans are multilingual. Anglicans, who established the first church in the early 19th century, were soon followed by Baptist and Methodist missionaries. The Roman Catholic church was established in 1851, and nearly three-fifths of the population are adherents of that religion. Protestants account for more than one-third of the population, with the largest denominations being Anglican, Pentecostal, Methodist, Seventh-day Adventist, and Mennonite. Evangelical and fundamentalist churches, many of them based in the United States, are small but growing rapidly. Migration patterns are changing the ethnic composition of the population. Groups of Mennonites migrated from Mexico and Canada after 1958 and established agricultural settlements to the north and west of Belize City. In the 1980s, Belize received an estimated 25,000 Spanish speakers-equivalent to nearly one-seventh of the nation's population at the time-as refugees fled war-torn Guatemala and El Salvador, while an even larger number of Belizeans, mostly English-speaking Creoles, migrated to the United States. Continuing immigration and a high rate of natural increase added some 70,000 people between 1980 and the end of the century.