Reefkeeper Belize and National Garifuna Council form Partnership

Lisa Mulcahy

Reefkeeper Belize, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Belizean students about the importance of the reef, mangrove and sea grass to promote conservation, met recently with the National Garifuna Council to discuss the intersection of culture and conservation.  Out of that discussion comes a partnership for sharing traditional knowledge.  Lisa Mulcahy is the director of Reefkeeper Belize.

Lisa Mulcahy, Director, Reefkeeper Belize

“Way back when I had the fantastic opportunity to partner with Major Suazo in Dangriga, and he actually came in to one of the classes that we taught in Gulisi Community School and he did a great job of helping to connect students with how the Garifuna culture sees and values the marine environment.  And so, I kept running into Mr. [Andrew] Mic Castillo who is the president of NGC, at various meetings and different things and we started talking and I said, “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if we could take some students, we have interns that we work with that are high school and college students, that are learning to be ambassadors and leaders in the environment and so we said, “hey wouldn’t it be great if we could all meet together and you could just tell us a little bit more about how the Garifuna culture views the environment and views the marine environment and maybe we could use that information in some of the educational things that we do in the future or find ways of partnering.  He said, “Yeah, I agree.  It’s a great thing.  So we met on that date and some of the students actually recorded his presentation where we problem spent a good two hours where he talked about what it was like when he was a kid, what kind of practices used, the marine environment or used creatures or plants from the marine environment and how the Garifuna views nature in general.”