Regional conservation initiative promotes planning

Conservation: it’s an issue on the front burner as Belize celebrates Natural Resources and Environment week. Today the Ministry of Natural Resources held a presentation on the Selva Maya, Zoque, and Olmeca Eco-regional Plan; a multi-national project designed to develop and maintain healthy ecosystems. And while it took three years of transborder collaboration with the governments of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala for the plan to become a reality, those involved tell us that the efforts have not been in vain.

Fernando Secaira, Co-regional Planner, The Nature Conservancy
?We have the Selva Maya, which is a very important biodiversity site, not only in Meso-America, but for the world. We have a lot of species here that we need to protect and there is a lot of threats, there is also a lot of needs of the people to use the biodiversity for the use of their own livelihoods. So the governments and the NGO?s and the development companies need a guideline to work toward on how to work in the region. So that?s why we needed this plan with a lot of information and guidelines, strategies in particular, to help people to address what to work, how to work to protect the environment here.?

Wilber Sabido, Chief Forest Officer, Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment
?Belize is one of the few countries in the region, as a matter of fact, it is the only country in the region that has in fact developed a protected areas plan and a complementing policy to go along with it and as a matter of fact, as well, it is one of the few countries as well that has utilized the results of, in this particular case, the ecoregional plan, a regional planning process and incorporated it into its own national planning processes.?

The presentation at the Radisson was followed by a technical briefing.