PACT provides funds for Iris caye cleanup

In terms of strong winds and high water, the part of Belize hit hardest by Hurricane Iris was not the Placencia Peninsula, Monkey River, Independence or the villages of inland Toledo. It was the dozens of cayes stretching from the outer atoll at Glovers across the Barrier Reef all the way to the inner channel. While most of the small number of people living on those southern cayes managed to evacuate, the buildings they left behind suffered a mortality rate of close to one hundred percent. The vegetation also took a beating, with many once lush islands totally devoid of life and a few smaller cayes literally wiped off the map. With the people of the mainland so tied up with their own rebuilding efforts, the largely uninhibited cayes have thus far been left to fend for themselves. But today the first sign of relief arrived in the form of a grant from the Protected Areas Conservation Trust. The PACT funds, totalling close to four thousand, five hundred dollars, will be used to clean up Laughing Bird Caye National Park. The park, declared in 1991, centres around the caye, which lies eleven miles east of Placencia and is a popular spot for tourists and Belizeans alike. The island’s trees and beach suffered significant damage from Iris and while many of the large coral heads on its windward side were toppled, the waters have remained clear and still teem with fish. The funds will pay for labour and transport of the cleanup crews. The park is co-managed by the Friends of Laughing Bird Caye and the Government of Belize.