Fisherfolk damaged by Dean receive assistance

In the aftermath of Hurricane Dean, much was said about the damage to buildings, public utilities and farms, but practically nothing was heard about the impact on one of Belize’s most important earners of foreign exchange: the fishing industry. According to those on the water, Dean’s wrath cut deep, affecting approximately two hundred residents who suffered a forty percent drop in production along with one point three million dollars in damages. Today the United Nations Development Program came to the fishermen’s aid, with a commitment to provide over two hundred thousand Belize dollars in assistance. At a ceremony this afternoon, UNDP and the Fisheries Department signed off on the first instalment of forty thousand dollars.

Beverly Wade, Fisheries Administrator
“Since Hurricane Dean happened this is really the first aid that is actually coming back, directly back to recovering lost in fishing capacity to fishers.”

Ovel Leonardo, Chairman, Northern Fishermen Cooperative
“We were greatly affected by hurricane Dean. Up to now our fishermen are still suffering from hurricane Dean and the reason why I said they are still suffering is that the water out there is still murky and they can’t fish and I would also put to say that the production for lobster is down.”

“When you look at the production, it’s finance you are talking about, money wise where the great loss is. So when you compare that with the damages, boats there were no damages, but on traps, on shades, and like what I said, they can’t produce like what they should really produce.”

Beverly Wade
“We are going to now work through the Belize Fishermen Cooperatives Association, that will be administrating those funds on our behalf and it will be done through a steering committee that has representation from all the fishing cooperatives and also from the community, from Sarteneja to ensure that they all have input into how the aid would now be distributed.”

Joseph Hendrikx, Assistant Resident Rep., UNDP Belize
“There will be several instalments. As we go through the purchase cycle, there will be some training involved as well, working with the fishermen and the fishermen cooperative.”

“We wanna bring them at least back to the point where they were, but I think the investment is also warranted if we can bring that up to higher levels. As a mentioned before, we have problems with maybe not so good practices of fishing, with over fishing practices. If we can include that with more sustainable ways of fishing, we would have two birds in one hand as they say in Holland.”

Ovel Leonardo
“I think that’s a great help and I think the fisherman they will really appreciate this great help and I think this will contribute a lot to them.”

Aside from the UNDP, funds were also obtained from COMPACT’s Small Grants Programme, the Czech Republic and government of Singapore.