PACT awards 11 grants for conservation projects
Today the Protected Areas Conservation Trust gave out a record eleven grants for projects designed to help conserve, protect, and sustain Belize’s natural resources. Almost three hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars has been earmarked for the organisations, which got their first instalments today. News Five was at the Radisson and spoke with some of the recipients.
James Azueta, Ecosystems Management, Fisheries Dept.
?Fisheries actually put four projects, three were accepted. Right now we actually have a project to update the visitors centre at Bacalar Chico, the other project is to get a monitoring programme at the Caye Caulker Marine Reserve, and the other project is to put a boardwalk at the Sapodilla Caye Marine Reserve.?
?Well the Fisheries Department manages eight marine reserves and these are actually protected marine areas. Fisheries has been at the forefront of management of marine protected areas in Belize and also in the region.?
?Our marine reserves are actually declared as fisheries management tools, where we have general use zones. People can actually extract in the general use zone and we have small, like fifteen percent of our protected areas that as have as no take zones, that is for the enhancement of fisheries stock and biodiversity in general.?
George Emmanuel, Chair. Tumul K?in Centre
?We are here today because we will be receiving a grant from PACT which is going to enhance our food processing Laboratory which we have started working on with the help of the Taiwanese mission and also with assistance from the G.E.F. Our objective is not only to provide the students with a good quality education, but one that which is going to help them enhance their livelihood and at the same time encourage them to preserve and manage their environment in which they live in and thus benefit from it in positive ways.?
Filiberto Pinados, Dir., Tumul K?in Centre
?Specifically the funds will be used for expanding our apiary, we are already producing honey, we are already selling honey, for purchasing equipment for the food processing unit to be able to produce a high quality honey, filtered honey. We will be developing a high quality product that we will be marketed in the resorts and supermarkets next year.?
Hyacinth Ysaguirre, Chair, Billy Bakadeer Park
?We got money to put in basic infrastructure for the park, training for the people, patrols for the park, computer system that we needed, brochures, tickets, stuff like that. Basically that is what it?s going to do for us… and signs also.?
?We have a very beautiful area, easily accessible from the roadside, beautiful falls, lot of wildlife, lot of fauna, scientists go back there and get their names in the scientific books, they are finding things back there, so I think it has potential. It?s relatively untouched and also it?s protecting our watershed in the valley, so I believe it has a lot going for it.?
Also included in the list of PACT grant awardees are the Belize Defence Force, which will be developing a geographic information system for national parks; the Belize Hotel Association, which is carrying out a tourism assets assessment; the Bladden Nature Reserve; Aguacaliente Management Team; Rancho Dolores Environmental Group; and the Itzamna Society which seeks to increase accessibility and security at the Elijio Panti National Park. PACT collects its revenue through a conservation fee paid by all visitors leaving Belize.
