RBAS takes place in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA), which is owned and operated as a wildlife and environmental reserve in northwestern Belize by the Programme for Belize, a non-profit conservation organization (full background here). This now heavily forested region was once thriving with dozens of cities, towns, and villages during the Maya Classic period (A.D. 250-800), supporting hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps more. Participants stay for the duration of the project at the Richard E. W. Adams Research Facility, a remote research camp in the RBCMA that operates under the direction of the University of Texas's Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP). Several independent research projects, the RBAS among them, use this facility as a base from which they carry out investigations in the largely unexplored forests of the RBCMA.
Cost:
The total cost for 4-weeks of food and housing is $1885 per student (the amount collected by RBAS). This figure covers food and housing during the field school, transportation to/from the airport (3 hrs each way), field equipment, and daily transportation within the research area. Additional, individual expenses for each participant (for which they make their own arrangements) include: airfare, inoculations, travel medical insurance, personal equipment, and miscellaneous costs. Other costs may
