An Intergenerational Workshop on Strong Coastlines and People in Belize

Today at the Biltmore Plaza in Belize City, a workshop was held that focused on the best that nature can be used as a solution to adapt and build resilience to climate risks and threats. It comes as part of a five-year project named COPE, Coastline and People, a partnership with seven universities and several NGOs, including the World Wildlife Fund. The University of South Florida is leading the project that is being sponsored via a grant from the US National Science Foundation.

Nadia Bood

Nadia Bood, Country Representative, World Wildlife Fund

“Climate change is very dynamic; we will continue to see impact so we need to take account of not only the current impacts we are seeing but also predict the impacts. And so, the universities role is to ensure that they do the necessary science and modelling to be able to inform us on how we can proceed in going forward – whether it is certain local strategies or actions that can be mainstreamed into both national policies and strategies going forward. The universities are targeting on different research areas – whether it is modelling of ecosystem services and how climate will impact that, whether it is modelling of how best we can restore or protect strategic sections of the coastline given the risks that Belize face.”

Lisa Carne

Lisa Carne, Executive Director, Fragments of Hope

“We have a huge list of external scientists and consultants that help me to ask the questions and answer the questions that we cannot do as yet in Belize. The other part of our role – we don’t really have a mission statement per se, but we have a mandate; it is on our website (www.fragmentsofhope.org) – is capacity building. And so we do a lot of training and always for Belizeans.”