Monitoring Progress Toward a Prosperous, Sustainable Future
Eight thousand, eight hundred and sixty-seven square miles, that is the size of Belize, land and water combined. It is no secret that as a country we are blessed with lush green forests, countless species of wildlife and a bountiful marine ecosystem. Since 2020, the Government of Belize has been collaborating with regional and international partners to measure the value of Belize’s natural wonders through scientific research and data. Today, stakeholders gathered in Belize City for a workshop on developing a sustainable future for the country’s natural resources. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Belize is considered rich in natural resources with its expanse of marine and green ecosystems. But, how do we go about measuring the value of these natural resources? That is what the Government of Belize, in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank, and Natural Capital Project are seeking to establish through the Belize Sustainable Future Workshop at the Biltmore.
Osmond Martinez
Dr. Osmond Martinez, C.E.O, Ministry of Economic Development
“At many points we don’t understand or convert these things or monetize them. For example, when there is a natural disaster and say for example there are trees that have fallen because of the natural disasters, we would say ex amount of trees have been destroyed, because of a natural disaster. In actuality, how much money did the nation lose? This is one of the aspects that is not necessarily captured in Belize.”
Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Economic Development, Osmond Martinez, further explained that a system will be developed, through the workshop, to determine the value of Belize’s natural resources. The official term used for such value is natural capital. Mary Ruckelshaus, the Executive Director of Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, is providing significant technical support to this endeavor.
Mary Ruckelshaus
Mary Ruckelshaus, Natural Capital Project
“Belizeans as you know, understand very deeply the benefit that nature brings to you, to people, to species, but it is time to get real and start measuring those benefits in monetary and human development terms so that we can really capture the value of those and maintain them so that we can bring this climate resilience that we need. The benefits of these natural capital resources is that we can quantify spatially, taking what you know in your heart about how nature benefits people and using data to map where are the benefits, where are lobster fisheries benefit, tourism benefits and what about coastal benefits/protection, quantifying it and cases in Belize, because the decision makers, you told us, would also be helpful to monetize these.”
Jade Delevaux, a senior fellow at Natural Capital Project, provided further insight into today’s gathering on the natural capital assessment approach being implemented. Her presentation focused on human activities, its risks to natural habitats, as well as co-benefits and values.
Jade Delevaux
Jade Delevaux, Senior Fellow, Natural Capital Project
“On the left you have a map from 2015 capturing the different human uses on the seascape, you have marine transportation inbound, you have the blue dots which represents dredging for instance, and then through a model we can convert that into how those activities present a risk for mangroves forest and then through quantifying the level of risk and we can say the functional habitats are not at high risk, because they can still provide benefits to people. From there we can convert that to lobster catch and revenue.”
According to Doctor Osmond Martinez, further workshops and research will be conducted over the course of the next fifteen months, before a natural capital system is established in Belize.
Dr. Osmond Martinez
“Hurricanes Lisa gave us an eye opener. When you look at the amount of debris that you saw after the hurricane passed, it was crazy. But at the same time, the most vulnerable populations, the housing infrastructure within our vulnerable population was exposed. Therefore we acknowledge that there is a lot of work that we need to do in terms of improving infrastructure, especially with the vulnerable population.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
