Cayo District

Cayo District demonstrates ecosystem diversification in a monoculture-vulnerable economy: Belize's largest district by area and second-most populous hosts the national capital Belmopan, citrus agriculture, oil production (discovered at Spanish Lookout), and the ecotourism that differentiates Belize from its Central American neighbors. This isn't strategic planning but geographic accident—the interior highlands offered what coastal districts couldn't.

The diversification provides some resilience. When tourism generated 46% of national GDP in 2024, Cayo captured the eco-tourism segment: Maya ruins at Caracol and Xunantunich, cave systems, and jungle lodges. When citrus disease threatened the agricultural sector, the district's oil production provided an alternative revenue stream. The 2024 pilot program for subsidized daycare and training specifically targeted Cayo to address female labor force participation—recognition that interior districts need different interventions than coastal ones.

But November 2024's Tropical Storm Sara revealed Cayo's vulnerability: unprecedented floods devastated the district alongside Belize. The same geography that provides agricultural diversity also creates flood exposure. The San Ignacio-Belmopan corridor concentrates population precisely where rivers converge. Ecotourism depends on intact ecosystems; flooding disrupts both infrastructure and the natural attractions tourists pay to see. Cayo's economic complexity is also its exposure complexity.