Study commissioned on desertification

Representatives of the NGO community, government officials and environmental agencies met in Belize City to discuss the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). You might be thinking…A desert? In Belize? Impossible! But according to the experts, the possibility isn’t so far from reality.

Oswaldo Sabido, Chief Forest Officer, Forest Department

“Our colleagues in the meteorology service are constantly reminding us that there have been significant climatic shifts in Belize and these coupled with bad land use can certainly lead to land degradation. Its impact ultimately will be on our biological resources. We are a country that’s rich in biological resources and we want to make sure that whatever we do will maintain and conserve those biological resources.”

Johnny Briceno, Min. Natural Resources and the Environment

“If you look say in the northern districts, we have over sixty thousand acres of land under sugar cultivation. What if something were to happen tomorrow? That there’s a disease or that the prices fall even more that people get out of the sugar industry? That land if we don’t do anything with it, could easily turn into a desert. We look at the rain patterns in Belize, over the past hundred years, there are certain years that there is a drought, for instance as in 1975 when the rains came in very late. What do we do in those instances? We need to be able to put in a plan of action. We need to educate Belizeans that if we don’t have a plan of action, we can be facing problems that other countries are facing today.”

Minister Briceno says the report will be used to appeal for funds to prevent any dramatic changes in Belize’s environment. The Belize Government has established a committee to gather information from ordinary citizens to be included in a report to be presented to the UN Secretariat. A consultant working with the UN is already in Belize to assist the committee.