It drains more than one-quarter of the country as it winds along the northern edge of the Maya Mountains to the sea just north of Belize City (17°32′N 88°14′W / 17.533°N 88.233°W / 17.533; -88.233).

It served as the main artery of commerce and communication between the interior and the coast until well into the twentieth century, and has long been associated with forestry, of logwood (for dye) and of mahogany which survives in small stands.

[3] In the late 1820s, the Methodist minister Thomas Wilkinson found three to four thousand men working at camps most of the year.

The major source of degradation is the extensive deforestation in the upper reaches of the Mopan River and non-sustainable agriculture.

Karper and Boles have asserted: "The greater Mopan/Belize River Catchment provides a prime example of a watershed under stress from extensive non-sustainable agricultural practices that have occurred within the region over the past three decades.