New rule for conch products to affect locals/visitors
It’s the second largest income earner in terms of captured fisheries for Belize, but conch is also listed as an endangered species. And while Belize’s management plan for the marine product has been accepted by international regulators, the United States is now implementing measures to ensure that all countries harvesting conch are adhering to their own protection regimes. According to Fisheries Administrator Beverly Wade, what that means is that all Belizean conch must be certified by local regulators before exportation.
Beverly Wade, Fisheries Administrator
“We applaud the U.S. government for a step like this because it further strengthens what we have in place at home here in Belize and it also assures us that there is more monitoring on their part to ensure that they are helping Belize to comply with our regulations that are here, to enforce our regulations that are here at home.”
Janelle Chanona
“So, does that mean if I wanna take ten conchs up to the states for my aunt, I need a special certificate? If I wanna take a conch shell can I do that?”
Beverly Wade
“That’s exactly what it means. It means that anything whether it is the meat, or any products of the queen conch. Whether it’s the shell or pearls or anything that is derived from the Queen Conch, has to have now a bona fide and original permit which says that this product has been harvested in compliance with the laws that are here in Belize and hence it is harvested in a sustainable manner that we as CITES are satisfied with. And so the U.S. government now, also as a country that this is now going into, now has that responsibility to say, I need to see that certificate from you that you are now bringing this thing from Belize and you have now brought this thing or acquired this thing with the assurance that it was done in compliance with the laws of Belize.”
Certificates to export conch and related products are currently available at the Fisheries Department at a cost of five dollars. For more information about the new rules, contact their offices at telephone number 223-2623.
