Beverly Wade’s New Role

Before Wade was appointed head of the Blue Bonds Unit, she worked as the Planning and Policy Advisor in the Ministry of the Blue Economy. This followed years of experience at the Fisheries Department. Having worked closely with others in protected areas management and conservation, she says that the transition was seamless because the work she is doing now requires networking to enhance existing policies.

Beverly Wade

Beverly Wade, Director, Blue Bonds & Project for Finance Permanence, O.P.M.

“It’s an excellent transition because for some time we have done a lot of work in Belize, putting in frameworks for management, putting in frameworks for conservation, working with the productive sector, and working with marine-protected areas. But what this unit is looking at, besides the Blue Bond, it’s also working with partners to create what we refer to as finance permanence. And what that is for us to now work with organizations like TASA (Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association) – we’re celebrating today a business model that they’re putting in place which hopefully will bring them some finance permanence for the management of the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve. To maintain and to adequately manage these areas needs tremendous resources and the traditional approach of just grant funding is not sustainable. And what COVID also showed us is that we have to start to become innovative. We need to have more established mechanisms in place. So, the Blue Bond, a part of the Blue Bond negotiation was to create a conservation trust fund that would finance marine conservation. And now we’re working along with W.W.F. (World Wildlife Fund) and the Nature Conservancy to design a finance permanence project for Belize that even goes beyond the Blue Bond to complement the Blue Bond. So that we can build on what TASA is doing here, support what TASA is doing here and at the end of the day, ensure that these areas and the systems that we have in Belize are adequately managed. That they’re functioning the way they’re supposed to function, in terms of providing the ecosystems services for our productive sector and for our important economic sectors like tourism, fisheries, but at the same time, maintaining the functional integrity of the ecosystem.”