Grants awarded for community conservation
In the past non-governmental organizations had to fight to raise funds for projects that would help to build communities or preserve the environment. But a small grant programme facilitated by the United Nations Development Plan is making it easier for many development projects to get off the ground.
Philip Balderamos, Co-ordinator, G.E.F. Small Grants Prog.
“The G.E.F. Small Grants Programme provides funding to community groups and non-governmental organizations for projects which address global environmental problems and provide livelihood opportunities for the communities at the local level. So its a combination of addressing global environmental challenges and improving the livelihood of people at the local level.”
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
In the past the G.E.F. programme has donated over one million U.S. dollars to thirty-eight Belizean organisations. This time around eleven NGOs have been given two hundred and ninety-one thousand Belize dollars to either begin or continue their programme.
LaBelle Saucier, Committee Member, Friends of Mayflower
“Most of the grant money, the seven thousand dollars we got has already been spent. What we did was we had Raleigh International Venturers at the park and they offered free labor. So we went to local hardware stores in Dangriga, some local people donated, some gave credit and we got materials to build a walk bridge across Silk Grass Creek. It’s a fifty foot span and the Raleigh Venturers worked very hard for the six weeks that they were there.”
Mustafa Toure, Dev. Advisor, Belize Fishermen Co-op Assn.
“What we got today was only two thousand five hundred dollars Belize and we’re putting together a three to five year development programme of which we expect the UNDP to help us with a hundred to a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“We are going to have a three to five year development programme that will involve information technology, capacity building, training. Hopefully telecommunications, GPS so we can join with the Fisheries Department, better market products as well as to educate and inform the local populace about the importance of preserving and maintaining Belize’s traditional fishing grounds.”
Derric Chan, President, Friends for Conservation and Dev.
“Friends for conservation and development has a programme called the River Keeper Programme. The River Keeper Programme is specifically for river protection, looking at river issues, working with the people, educating people, and everything that entails river protection.”
“This is a planning grant. It’s just a two thousand five hundred dollar grant and we use it to make consultations. We already consulted communities, visiting them, conducting attitude surveys to get different community perspectives of the rivers, to see how they value the river. And this information is what we are going to use to put up a bigger proposal.”
Three NGOs, Programme For Belize, Belize Enterprise for Sustainable Technologies and the Alliance for National Development Agencies have united to prepare a strategy to conserve the country’s reef system.
Roberto Pott, Liaison Officer, COMPACT
“It’s a collaborative effort to try and develop a country strategy for the world heritage site and the Belize Barrier Reef system. This is being done for the COMPACT project, COMPACT being the Community Management of Protected Areas Conservation Project. This is a project that is designed to mitigate threats and concerns of the world heritage site, where we are trying to reduce the impact of human use on the natural resource.”
Not only does each cheque help to sustain the environment, they also represent educational and income generating opportunities for recipient organisations and the communities in which they operate. Reporting for News 5, Jose Sanchez.
