The Conservation Component of the Blue Loan Agreement

The conservation component includes the setting aside of key areas in the country that will be designated for protection and management.  A majority of those areas, according to Prime Minister Briceno, fall within the Bacalar Chico National Park near northern Ambergris Caye.

Prime Minister John Briceno

“The new areas to be designated by Belize will be in our exclusive economic zone, not in our inner waters where our fisher folks go and fish at the moment and there is where the limit of the no-take zone has been reached. We’ve already reached the limit within our inner waters. And the designations will be done based on proper consultations, taking into special account the livelihoods of fisher folks and the wellbeing of our coastal communities. Government will designate the remaining public lands within the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System as mangrove reserves. The vast majority of this additional acreage, ninety-percent in fact is already located in the Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve ninety-eight percent.”