Audubon assesses state of environment

Today is celebrated as Earth Day and to mark the occasion, the Belize Audubon Society is releasing their Environmental Agenda 2002 and Beyond, a follow-up to a similar document produced four years ago. The agenda is meant to assess the condition of Belize’s natural resources and makes specific suggestions for sustainable development. According to Audubon’s executive director, Valdemar Andrade, while the state of our environment is good, some changes need to be made.

Valdemar Andrade, Executive Director, Audubon

“What we need to consider though is that there are many things that we could improve upon. And some of the over-arching concerns that we have within the environmental agenda are with respect to policy issues, legislation and regulations that need to be put in place, and those that have been in place for a while now, but they need to be updated. We also look at inter-agency co-operation, there’s not enough co-operation within the agencies that manage these different sectors that affect our impact upon the environment. And so because there’s not co-ordination, there’s inefficient management, so there needs to be some kind of mechanism put in place. There’s also a need for more resources for these implementing agencies and statutory bodies to actually do the work and actually do the underground work.”

“These concerns and recommendations are basically a platform for further consultation and also for co-operation between government, Belize Audubon and civil society at large and also the private sector, to come to try to solve these issues that have been lingering for a long period of time. These issues also go back to us, here who live within the environment and who when our water is dirty, or when our air is polluted, or whenever any of the environment is impacted.”

The official launch of the Environmental Agenda will take place tonight at a reception hosted by the Audubon Society at the Radisson Fort George Hotel.