It's a grey area. I was at an event where the Prime Minister's wife welcomed a group of volunteers from a cruise ship who spent their day painting the children's ward at the hospital along with other 'voluntourism' activities. No one had been issued or been asked to show any sort of permit. I attempted to get a volunteer permit when I first arrived for some volunteer work I was doing. Immigration told me I was being silly and that they weren't interested in people like me who were doing genuine volunteer work and not taking a job from a Belizean. Who knows whether it would be enforced or not for a genuine volunteer. I've certainly never heard of it and know of a lot of places that use volunteers for genuine volunteer work without any sort of official recognition or permissions. That doesn't mean it is technically legal, but there are lots of grey areas when you're talking about legalities and enforcement in Belize. The impression I get is that they word the visa that way to stop people from taking real jobs away from Belizeans claiming to be 'volunteers' to get around the work permit process.
AmbergrisCaye.com 
