Port Honduras area becomes reserve

For one community organization’s, persistence in achieving its goal has paid off. Today, members of the Toledo Institute for Development and the Environment (TIDE), watched as the Port Honduras area was officially declared a national reserve. TIDE has consistently maintained that the area is being used as a manatee slaughtering ground by Guatemalan poachers. Additional patrolling in the area by officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is one way of fighting the problem. TIDE had asked fishermen in the community to assist in the patrolling and were providing gasoline. Now that the area is a reserve, international conservation organizations able to give Belize assistance. News Five was in P.G. today and will have more in tomorrow’s newscast.