Ocean Accounting and Why It Matters in Belize’s Marine Spaces

Organizing data to describe the complex environmental and economic systems present in our oceans is a process known as ocean accounting.  Measuring and managing progress towards sustainable development are vital to informing decisions about our oceans.  The Belize Blue Bond is a funding mechanism to support the sustainable use and conservation of marine resources and ecosystems while promoting the country’s blue economy.  The Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute has reached out to the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership to provide training on ocean accounting and how it can help to provide a framework for tracking and measuring the economic and environmental impacts of ocean-related activities.

Samir Rosado

Samir Rosado, Marine Spatial Planning Lead, CZMAI

“Belize, as a part of its commitments under the Blue Bond Agreement has agreed to create a marine spatial plan.  That marine spatial plan for Belize is called the Belize Sustainable Ocean Plan, and really, as we were conceptualizing during our pre-planning stage, we were trying to figure out innovative ways for us to, you know, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of this plan over time.  And so, that sort of gave rise to, you know, the curiosity of this new way of compiling data and making meaningful indicators that can be tracked over time which is why the CZMAI reached out to the Global Ocean Accounting Partnership to sort of gain this knowledge.  Little did we know this application can go beyond this Belize Sustainable Ocean Plan and can be useful in general for the country to actually be able to track its ocean’s assets over time so that we can leverage it.  For example, if we seek to look for funding elsewhere, we know exactly what the value of our assets are.  And so, as a country it is very important for us to do because if you think about all the agencies or departments that have mandates in this coastal marine space, you know, we’ve been collecting data for years.”