F.C.D. Gets “Big Up” in London

It has been a while since we’ve heard from the Friends of Conservation and Development, but just this week, Executive Director Raphael Manzanero was in London on official FCD business. On Tuesday, he was at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy.  It is a project designed to create a network of forest conservation initiatives throughout the fifty-two commonwealth nations. Simply put, it is to save forests around the commonwealth.  According to the FCD, the Chiquibul Forest has been accepted into the program. The Q.C.C. was launched at the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Malta in 2015 and being a part of this initiative comes with the use of existing forestry resources and projects throughout the Commonwealth. Participation is free and comes without regulatory obligations for accredited projects. Manzanero also signed an agreement with a UK-based company, SELVANA Limited. A release issued by the Belize High Commission in London says that the agreement is for the delivery of the Maya 2020 Project. The project is a collaboration between the two bodies that will support the sustainable forest conservation objective of the FCD as the only N.G.O. and managing partner of the Chiquibul National Park. The release states, “The collaboration has developed a unique approach to halting the illegal activities within the forest.  By using a range of remotely sensed imagery techniques and ground-based acoustic technology, a global network of trained volunteer observers will monitor the forest in real-time from anywhere in the world.”