PACT Awards $6.7 Million in Conservation Investments to Protected Areas

The Protected Areas Conservation Trust, PACT, has awarded six point seven million dollars in conservation investments to protected areas. The investments will be made through six local conservation organizations that collectively co-manage twelve protected areas. The monies will be disbursed through the following N.G.O.s: Ya’axché Conservation Trust will receive one million dollars to be invested in the Bladen Nature Reserve. Friends for Conservation and Development will get almost one point three million dollars for works in the Chiquibul National Park. The Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association is being awarded just over a million dollars to enhance the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve. The Toledo Institute for Development and Environment gets over one point seven million dollars for the Port Honduras Marine Reserve and Payne’s Creek National Park. The Belize Audubon Society will receive nine hundred and ninety thousand dollars on behalf of the Half Moon Caye Natural Monument, Blue Hole Natural Monument, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, Victoria Peak Natural Monument, and St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park. And the Southern Environmental Association is being awarded six hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars for the Laughing Bird Caye National Park and Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve. According to a release from PACT, an additional three point two million dollars are expected to be committed by March of next year. These two sums amount to nine point nine million dollars which will be invested, “in targeted actions and ecosystems over the next three years from 2019 to 2021 carrying with it, the potential to leverage a further ten million dollars from other sources.”