Regional reef conservation project launched
It was a low key ceremony held under a tent on the beach, but the project being inaugurated was radical in concept and bold in scope. Janelle Chanona reports from San Pedro.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
The official launching of the Meso-American Barrier Reef System Project in San Pedro on Wednesday brought together environmental ministers from across Central America. The political leaders have promised to promote protection and preservation from a regional perspective. And they’ve got money: ten million dollars in World Bank grants to help them do it.
Johnny Briceno, Min. of Natural Resources
“The reef has already been designated a World Heritage Site, so it is a site for all humanity, so it’s no longer just Belize. But we are so pleased and so proud that it is in our waters. The idea behind this is that while Belize has been so environmentally conscious, trying to do everything to protect the reef, we have to ensure that our neighbours are just as environmentally conscious as Belize. We hope that with this project, we can have Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras to be on board with us in the protection of this national treasure.”
High on the list of the project’s priorities are beefing up patrols along the reef, co-ordinating laws with the countries involved and training personnel. Regional co-ordinator, Belizean Noel Jacobs, admits the project is bold, but not impossible.
Noel Jacobs, Regional Co-ordinator
“We do know and we do recognise that in this first five years, the actual harmonisation of laws is very ambitious. But we do believe that in the first five years, we can harmonise quite a bit of policies which is the precursory to the harmonisation of regional laws, that is the first step.”
Johnny Briceno
“There is always the concern that we have projects and Belize does not benefit from it, but just the whole objective behind this, we are trying to find a way to ensure that this barrier reef in the next hundred years is still around. Of course should that happen, Belizeans benefit directly from it. But if we’re talking about that this is going to create a lot of jobs for Belizeans, of course it’s not. The objective is to see how we can preserve this beautiful reef that makes us so unique in the whole world.”
But the sponsors of the project, the World Bank, made sure they emphasised a key point to the participants.
Marea Hatziolos, Project Task Manager, World Bank
“We can provide the financing, the technical competence, but only you, the decision makers, the policy makers can provide the political will that will be necessary to carry this project through. We need your help to navigate the waters of diverse interest, shrinking budgets, of governments in transition and short term planning horizons.”
Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.
The project’s headquarters will be located in Belize City on the Fisheries compound on the Barracks as soon as the building is completed. Janelle Chanona, now back in Belize working on her master’s thesis, will rejoin the News 5 team at the end of August.
