AN INTRODUCTION TO BELIZE GEOGRAPHICAL AND POPULATION DISTRIBUTION Located on the Caribbean coast of Central The western border consists of lowland America, Belize combines both Caribbean forest, highland plateau and the Maya and Latin characteristics. The country is mountains in the south. Most rivers rise in located at 17°15' north of the equator and the west of the country and flow eastwards 88°45' west of the Prime Meridian on the to the sea through low-lying, often swampy, Yucatán Peninsula. It borders the Caribbean coastal plains. About 60% of the country is Sea to the east, with 386 km of coastline. It covered by forest containing an abundance has a total of 516 km of land borders— of fauna and flora. Larger scale agriculture, Mexico to the north-northwest (250 km) and involving bananas, citrus and sugar cane, is Guatemala concentrated to the south-southwest in the low-lying areas. (266 km). Belize's total size is 22,960 km², Elsewhere, most cultivation is small-scale of which 22,800 km² is land and 160 km² and largely for subsistence. The Mayan is water. This makes the country about population and rural Guatemalan migrants twice the size of Jamaica, about half the employ variations of slash-and-burn shifting size of Nova Scotia, slightly larger than forms of cultivation. Wales, and slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Belize ICT National Strategy 10