There is an allegation against a police officer coming out of the Toledo District tonight. Residents from the Santa Teresa Village claim that the officer has stolen rosewood from its area. According to the Pablo Max, the Chairperson of the Quiche Ha Community-based Enterprise that manages the forest products in the village, a team was […]
Three Honduran fishermen were busted over the weekend for illegally fishing within the Spawning Aggregation Zone at the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve in southern Belize. The trio: Edwin Carcamo Banegas, Hector Rodriguez Martinez and Wilford Machado were in a boat named Angelica when they were spotted by a patrol of SEA Rangers […]
Back in December, the Protected Areas Conservation Trust awarded six point seven million dollars to support improved management of thirteen protected areas across the Belize National Protected Areas System. Earlier this week, they awarded another two point seven million dollars in grants to six local environmental N.G.O.s as a part of the second phase of […]
Illegal cattle ranching is just one of the threats to the Chiquibul forest; the area is remote, but it is rich with the most precious natural resources. On a daily basis it is plundered and the human and financial resources to manage the forest are slim. Rangers of Friends and Conservation are on duty doing […]
The jaguar is the largest and most powerful cat in the Western Hemisphere. In Belize, they are found in the lowland forests and along the coast. But hunting and deforestation have increasingly put these big cats at risk of being killed because they are pushed to go close to communities to prey on livestock and […]
The vast Chiquibul Forest in the south-western region of Belize stretches across more than four hundred and twenty-three acres of land. The tropical rainforest includes the largest cave system in Central America, the Caracol Mayan Site, and the Chiquibul River. It is an invaluable natural resource, but the Chiquibul continues to be raped by Guatemalans […]
If you like conch fritters, conch soup or conch ceviche, you may want to enjoy these dishes before the end of this month. That is because the conch season is closing two months early. The Belize Fisheries Department says that this is because the quota for the queen conch fishery has been met. So, what […]
One of the concerns that have been raised about the harvesting of the queen conch is the use of the shell size to determine maturity. The Fisheries Department says that while some believe that lip thickness may be a better way to indicate maturity, the method used in Belize is considered sustainable because the conch […]
Earlier this week we showed you a pair of Jaguarundis who were born two months ago at the Belize Zoo. News of the birth spread quickly among the zoos across the world and now the kittens are being sought after because unlike the Belize Zoo, those zoos have not had much success in getting their […]
How much do you know about the jaguarundi? These small cats are native to parts of North, Central and South America. They are not just commonly found in the forests of Belize, but there’s also a growing exhibit in captivity at the Belize Zoo. Today, we found out why many zoos around the world want […]
The Ministry of Environment is looking to implement a three-year project to build Belize’s preparedness and response to extreme weather events. The project will look at flood preparedness and prevention through the use of technology, advanced monitoring techniques for an early warning system for floods, building capacity of human resource personnel and awareness programmes. On […]
With the help of Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association, the Fisheries Department and the Nature Conservancy, a group of fishers are exploring the economic benefits of seaweed farming. About a dozen fishers are part of a pilot project to farm and harvest seaweed. Their farms are located a few miles out of Mauger Caye which forms […]
Forests still cover about thirty percent of the world’s land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. And because deforestation causes almost twenty percent of global emissions, the preservation of trees is a big part of the answer to slow down climate change. One of the solutions to preserving forest is through an international […]
Belize’s bananas are said to be some of the best on the market. They have a high demand in Europe and right here at home they make for healthy and tasty snack. And while the bananas are in planted in our soil, the little plants or meristems, as they are called, are actually not from […]
News Five joined other members of the media on an overnight trip to Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, the largest marine reserve in this part of the world. The visit one of the most spectacular sites under protection was coordinated by the Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association, an N.G.O. formed in 2013 with the aim to promote […]
Since the beginning of the week, News Five has been taking an in-depth look at the state of Belize’s conch fishery. There have been serious concerns raised about enforcement of fisheries regulations in various hotspots, including Zone Three in the waters of southern Belize. Tonight, the Fisheries Department responds to those concerns, discussing the existing […]
As you may know by now, the Department of Environment is pushing full steam ahead to phase out single use plastics and Styrofoam in Belize by December of this year. The phase out begins when the draft legislation is passed next month. Last week the D.O.E. met with importers, producers and others in the business […]
And so the phase out is a staggered process that starts with the importation followed by local production. The ban will affect the bottom line and even see many importers and local producers of plastics and Styrofoam close down that part of their business. And so while it is a win for the environment – […]
The late evening fire that eviscerated the home of Melanie Adolphus has displaced her family, but if there is a silver lining on that dark cloud it’s the fact that she will be relocated to a property of her own in the weeks ahead. That’s because, like two other homes on that strip of land, […]
The Belize Coast Guard has issued a statement with the details surrounding a sail boat that ran aground on the Sapodilla Caye Marine Reserve. According to the Coast Guard, they were aware of the incident that happened in the early hours of the morning of Thursday, March fourteenth. The Hunting Caye F.O.B. received a distress […]
The Government has secured an additional twenty million US dollars loan from the Kuwait Fund for partial financing of Phase Two of the upgrading of the Caracol Road. In Phase Two, twenty-six miles of the Caracol Road will be upgraded from a dirt and gravel road to an asphalt road consisting of two lanes accompanied […]
The second loan motion which was debated in the Senate today was one for thirty-six point five million U.S. dollars. Those monies have been secured from the Caribbean Development Bank for the rehabilitation of thirty-four miles of the Coastal Road. Like the Caracol Road Rehabilitation Project, the Coastal Road project has attracted naysayers including several […]
On Tuesday Primrose Gabourel and Dion Zabaneh were back in court because the Department of Environment slapped them with new charges. The D.O.E. had withdrawn the six charges against the seventy-six-year-old mother and her forty-three-year-old son earlier this year when they were charged for not adhering to stop orders for a development being carried out […]
The phase out of plastic and Styrofoam is expected to come into effect at the end of this year. Next month, on April twenty-second, the D.O.E. is looking to have the draft legislation passed. And so to prepare the public for this transition to a plastic free Belize, the D.O.E. is embarking on a national […]
It is difficult to imagine Belize without the queen conch. But that threat is real because the conch population is under pressure due to over fishing. Elsewhere in the Caribbean, the situation is dire; Belize exports more than seven million dollars of conch yearly and the livelihood of hundreds of fishermen depend on this. Now, […]
