New Blue Bonds Unit Oversees Resource Management

There is now a Blue Bonds Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, presided over by former Fisheries Administrator, Beverly Wade. As Director of the Blue Bonds and Project for Finance Permanence, Wade told News Five that Belize has eight years to deliver in key areas. 

Beverly Wade

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

“A lot of the targets are really building on things we’ve been doing in Belize already, so Belize had already made some commitments in terms of the expansion of our protected areas. So what the Blue Bonds Agreement is expected to do is support that process. It’s actually also looking at how do we improve the management of our mangroves in Belize, the creation of some mangrove reserves. How do we bring effective management to these areas that are so important to our tourism product and also to our productive sector – the fisheries sector – and the quality of life, in general? Because these ecosystems play an important role in ensuring the ocean’s health and the health of our reef. It’s also looking at…one of the primary things is the development of a marine spatial plan for Belize. The marine spatial plan really builds on what we’ve been doing before at the Coastal Zone Management Authority with integrated coastal zone management plan. But it goes a little bit further than that. It’s now going to be a plan which goes beyond our territorial seas. It goes into our E.Z. [Economic Zone] and it’s really meant to be a planning tool for us to now say this is what we want to do in our blue space. This is how we want to approach development. This is how we want to approach conservation.”