PACT hands over $2,000,000 to local environmentalists

Two million dollars, that’s the amount the Protected Areas Conservation Trust officially handed over to local environmental groups today in one of their largest contribution ceremonies ever. According to a PACT press release, the University of Belize received the lion’s share of the money, a whopping nine hundred thousand dollars for a three-year project designed to develop a Bachelors degree programme in areas such as natural resource management and conservation education.

The Belize Audubon Society has been awarded eight hundred thousand dollars to aid in the management of the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, the Halfmoon Caye Natural Monument, and Lighthouse Reef Atoll.

Meanwhile, TIDE, the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment received a cheque in the amount of three hundred and eighty-seven thousand, six hundred and forty dollars for a two year plan to improve the Payne’s Creek National Park in Toledo.

PACT also announced today that it has disbursed additional monies in a scholarship and a research grant. Thirty-nine thousand dollars will be paid to Claudio Leal who will study hydrology at the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology in Barbados starting in January. Another fourteen thousand, five hundred dollars has been awarded to Frantz Smith to complete his PhD at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Smith is pursuing courses in the area of marine biology.

The monies were handed over today to representatives of the respective organisations during brief ceremonies at the San Ignacio Hotel in the Cayo District.