Belizeans plot strategy for World Heritage Sites

It’s no doubt a great honour to for a country to boast a World Heritage Site…but how do you parlay that recognition into tangible benefits. This week some of Belize’s best and brightest minds are trying to answer that important question.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Since Belize?s Barrier Reef was named a world heritage site in 1996 by the United Nation?s Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, local environmentalists have been working hard to recommend other national features for the global recognition.

This week, representatives of governmental, non-governmental and conservation organisations are holding a four-day workshop to compile a Belize World Heritage Strategy.

Johnny Briceño, Minister of Natural Resources
?Belize?s natural and cultural heritage is so precious that we have a duty to protect this heritage for the benefit of present and future generations of Belizeans and the world.?

According to Minister of Natural Resources Johnny Briceño, the action plan will be designed to benefit Belizeans.

Johnny Briceño
?Whatever plan we come up with, we have to ensure it is people-cantered. That has always been, for me, of most importance that whatever we do, it must be people cantered and to ensure that Belizeans are going to be the true beneficiaries of whatever we do.?

Presently, much of Belize?s natural attractions are at the mercy of limited resources, which in turn has led to some controversial ventures. A recent tourism project involving the barrier reef, proposed by a group of local investors, in conjunction with the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute, has created contention.

Johnny Briceño
?The problem has been that under the, when we got funding from the World Bank, a grant for the Coastal Zone Authority one of the ideas was that at the end of the period, they would have been able to sustain themselves, that they don?t have to depend on getting more grants, from government or whatever it is. That was the weakness of the whole project; they didn?t give enough attention to that. And when they came up with this idea of us leasing out an area to them, that they in turn can use it to get funds, to be able to manage their activities. I think that was a great start. But now I think the Coastal Zone Management Authority needs to go to the other step, to the actual implementation to see if it happens in a managed way.?

Chairperson of the Belize National UNESCO Commission, Attorney General Francis Fonseca is also advocating sustainable development.

Francis Fonseca, Chair, Belize UNESCO Commission
?Tourism is Belize?s fastest growing industry. Tourism cannot exist if we do not protect the heritage on which that tourism product is based. So too must we guard against a national strategy which is insensitive to social and economic realities of our people, where people lack economic opportunities and educational opportunities when they do not have adequate health care, housing, water and electricity then their heritage risks becoming meaningless. The national strategy shaped over the next few days must be one which the Belizean people can embrace, one which we recognise as our own, one grounded in the Belizean experience and based on Belize?s national development priorities.?

According to Secretary General of the local UNESCO team, over the next four days a short list of proposed sites for the world heritage honour will be finalised.

Theresita Levy, Secretary General, Belize UNESCO Commission
?There?s the possibility of the ruins, for the caves, St. John?s Anglican Cathedral, and as we heard Minister Briceño say this morning, it would be good if we could look at the forestry reserves so that list may change or get longer at the end of this workshop and then it will be up to UNESCO after we forward the application form for these nominations, which one or ones will be approved as world heritage sites for Belize.?

There are eighteen World Heritage Sites across the Caribbean, including the Belize Barrier Reef.