Gender & Climate Change to be Discussed at Women in Fisheries Forum
On Wednesday, over fifty women in the fishing industry, from across the country, will converge in Placencia for a two-day forum. The Fifth Women in Fisheries Forum is part of a Green Climate Fund readiness project entitled “Enhancing adaptation planning and increasing climate resilience in the coastal zone and fisheries sector of Belize. It will look at gender and climate change, but more importantly, understanding the link between both. Director of Blue Economy Maxine Monsanto told News Five that the primary goal is for women to engage women in understanding their role in climate change adaptation and mitigation and improve community responsiveness.
Maxine Monsanto
Maxine Monsanto, Director of Blue Economy
“Its inviting over fifty women to Placencia to discuss the role of gender or rather gender and climate change and the linkage between them and understanding their role and how women respond to the impact of climate change within the fishing sector. It is a part of an ongoing project – the vulnerability in fisheries project for fisheries and coastal zone. It is through the FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization and it is with the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Blue Economy and Civil Aviation. To give you an example, there are representatives who will be attending from MET. Invitations have gone to fisherwomen from Sarteneja, from – I hope I am pronouncing this correctly – the Wabafu group from Dangriga. It is also to engaged them in developing a gender strategy for the small scale fisheries sector from the women’s perspective and allowing them to identify opportunities for building climate resilient communities. The two-day activity, the first day is mostly theoretical – they’ll be listening to presentations – and then the second day, they’ll be doing a field trip to Monkey River to see the impacts of climate change first hand.”
During the two-day event, the fisherwomen will be taken from Placencia to Monkey River to witness the impacts of climate change on the village. Director Maxine Monsanto says that this can help these women involved in fishing and the coastal zone sector with their response to the impacts of climate change within their communities.
