On Wednesday Senators debated several loan motions, including the ninety million dollar government-backed loan for Belize Telemedia Limited to upgrade its fiber optic network to provide high-speed internet to homes and businesses. Another such motion is the OFID forty-million U.S. dollar loan for the construction of the Caracol Road, passed in the House previously. But […]
Reef Week started back in 2013 as an initiative to celebrate Belize’s Barrier Reef through a week of events across Belize. Today, the conservation community launched the fifth staging of Reef Week under the theme “Our Reef Rocks: Protect It; Don’t Neglect It.” The Belizean conservation community spoke of the significant economic and cultural benefits […]
In addition to the recent revelations of massive land compensation to connected government supporters revealed in the past few days, there are ordinary Belizeans still complaining about the shady dealings in the Ministry of Natural Resources. A case of out-and-out alleged thievery was reported to us by Cayman Islands resident Derick Garcia, who believes inside […]
Andre Vega, the son of former Lands Minister Gaspar Vega and Sharon Pitts were taken to court for the return of over four hundred thousand dollars given to them as compensation for privately owned land near the Haulover Bridge in 2016. While Pitts is currently in mediation to see the funds given back to G.O.B., […]
A routine patrol by rangers of the Southern Environmental Association, better known as SEA, and Belize Coast Guard officers resulted in the arrest of three Honduran fishermen. The patrol near the spawning and aggregation site in the Gladden Spit and Silk Cayes Marine Reserve on Sunday night led to the capture of Henry Castro, Joel […]
February fifteenth is a big day for fishermen and lobster eaters in Belize. It is the day when the lobster season closes off and that means no traps are to be set and no one should be eating lobsters for the next four months. The Belize Fisheries Department announced the closure of the consumption and […]
The use of drones and lidar technology for mapping were not previously available for farming practices, but it is now here and replacing old methods of surveying in the sugar industry. With already an unusual amount of rainfall this year, the research arm of ASR/B.S.I. carried out the first aerial survey using the cutting-edge technology […]
Julio, an American crocodile, was relocated today from San Pedro to ACES Sanctuary in Ladyville. He’s a huge croc that was creating a lot of disturbance in a community in San Pedro and ACES says they have no choice but to put him in the sanctuary. News Five’s Andrea Polanco went out to meet Julio […]
A Belize City family is enduring another sleepless night after a horrific episode this past weekend. Their three female watchdogs were mauled and stung to death when set upon by Africanized bees who came seemingly out of nowhere from behind their residence on Mex Avenue. And the dogs were not the only casualty as at […]
Villagers of San Benito Poite in the Toledo District are staring disaster in the face after floods hit the community over the weekend. It has been an unusually rainy few weeks in the area and in addition to being inaccessible by road; their primary crops – corn for subsistence farming and beans for commercial sale […]
Speaking of the long-term effects, Salas posited that the change in weather patterns is attributable to climate change. He called for a strategy by authorities to help farmers plant more effectively to survive these occasional catastrophes. On the Phone: Osmany Salas, Senator for Non-Governmental Organizations “In the medium to long-term, since they are recognizing […]
Twelve bikers set off on a six-day adventure across Belize and into the Chiquibul Forest Reserve last week in support of Friends for Conservation and Development. It was organized by the European Nature Trust, which creates unique wild experiences to connect people with nature while raising funds for selected conservation organizations. According to the Trust, […]
If you travel through the southernmost town of Punta Gorda, you are likely to be hit by the unsightly accumulation of garbage. Solid waste management is an issue that plagues the residents. The tons of garbage are simply disposed of in an area of town where it is dumped along a feeder road. Tonight, News […]
Relations between the Belize City Council and Belize Maintenance Limited as well as Belize Waste Control went from peak to ebb during Mayor Darrell Bradley’s two terms in office. Who can soon forget how employees of BML rioted in front of City Hall in 2015, forcing the central government to intervene and the eventual takeover […]
A six-point-four magnitude earthquake struck on the coast of Taiwan very late on Tuesday night, about ten minutes before midnight local time. Centered on the eastern city of Hualien, about a hundred miles south of the capital Taipei, seven deaths have so far been reported and more than two hundred persons left injured. There are […]
In September, the Department of the Environment convened the first consultations with stakeholders on forming a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan. Today, those consultations continued at the Biltmore Plaza, focusing on firming up whose responsibilities it will be to react first, whether by land or by sea. Environmental Officer with the Department, Maxine Monsanto, details […]
In the time period between the first and second consultations on the plan, the Petroleum Operations (Maritime Zone Moratorium) Act, 2017, was passed by the House of Representatives on December eighth and the Senate five days later. The Governor General made the formal enactment on December twenty-ninth. The new law imposes an indefinite moratorium on […]
Every year since 1998, Belize has been celebrating World Wetlands Day, but even before that, in 1984, Crooked Tree was designated as a wildlife sanctuary. Crooked Tree is a waterfowl habitat, under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and is known for the annual cashew festival. To further the sustainability of the wetland, today a short-term […]
Back in May of 2017, the Audubon office in the village of Crooked Tree was burnt down in a case of arson. It is speculated that the crime was as a result of the tensions between the sanctuary manager and residents. The historic wooden structure housed maps and equipments and served as a focal point […]
Earlier this week, we reported on the case of two Guatemalan fishermen charged with illegal fishing in southern Belize. Tonight, Friends for Conservation and Development, FCD, is reporting that on Sunday, a joint patrol comprising of the Chiquibul National Park Rangers, the Belize Defence Force and Special Patrol Unit of the Police Department detained three […]
Two Guatemalan fishermen remain in detention tonight after they were fined in the Punta Gorda Magistrate’s Court over seven thousand dollars for illegally fishing in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve. Around two on Sunday morning, Mynor Cifuentes and Sergio Lopez were discovered with miles of illegal fishing lines and catch well within Belizean territorial waters. […]
The public outcry on two beheaded jaguars was sounded across the city and a ten thousand dollar reward was set up to catch the poachers. But so far, there hasn’t been much luck in identifying who was the perpetrator. Minister Omar Figueroa says that while they haven’t identified the person responsible for killing the protected […]
Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) is a new tool being used by marine and terrestrial conservationists in Belize. The software was introduced locally a little over five years ago – and since then it has been used to sustainably manage resources in different protected areas. It is widely used in different parts of the […]
This morning at the Radisson in the city, a pair of strategies was formally introduced by the Forest Department for sustainable forest and forest fire management. The launch coincided with the presentation of SMART Technology, short for Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool. Funded by the Global Environmental Fund, both documents are geared towards promoting the […]
Over the years, we’ve reported on the work of the Friends for Conservation and Development and the illegal activities of Guatemalans inside the Chiquibul. We’ve documented the incursions and the measures implemented to curb those illegal activities. The FCD says that the past ten years of work have resulted in significant achievement for the protection […]
