Increases in agricultural development and the expansion of settlements are just two factors that have impacted the country’s forest reserves, yet experts maintain that Belize continues to be a shining example to the region for having much of its natural resources still intact. In 1998, Belize became signatory to the United Nations Convention to Combat […]
In related news, this week the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT) is hosting an expert on park management to develop business plans for protected areas in Belize. According to PACT, Scott Edwards from the Centre for Parks Management, a non-governmental organization based in Washington DC, will use this trip as the first step in coming […]
Most people spend their Saturdays resting and relaxing at home after a hard week’s work. But in late September, over eight hundred volunteers including students, members of scouts and various conservation organizations descended on beaches and riversides all over the country. No, not for recreation, but armed with garbage bags, determined to get thousands of […]
On yesterday’s newscast, we reported on problems that tour operators were having with newly imposed visitor fees at Goff’s Caye. But while the northern half of Belize deals with the dramatic rise of cruise ship based tourists, coastal communities in the south are coming to terms with the rapid expansion of a different kind of […]
It?s a common concern for everyone in the agricultural sector, the deliberate, or unintentional importation of destructive insects which can then translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss to local farmers. This week, the Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA) released findings on a new pest that is threatening our home grown products. Jacqueline […]
Located just two miles east of Belize City, Swallow Caye consists of nine thousand five hundred and fifty-four acres of mangrove ecosystems, home to a number of wildlife and marine species such as the manatee. But because of the sanctuary?s location, the manatee especially is threatened by the many vessels that pass through the area […]
In 1998 the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute was established to implement a five-year project to help preserve our Barrier Reef. Funded largely from the United Nations, with smaller amounts from the European Union and Belize Government, the ten million dollar programme had ambitious goals…but with pressures on the once pristine habitat building and […]
Representatives of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors of Central America are meeting in Belize City this week for the first national forum on continental water bodies. It’s a regional project, the first of its kind, funded by the Republic of China on Taiwan. It seeks to give governments of the seven Central American countries a […]
On July second reporter Patrick Jones visited a stretch of the Cave’s Branch River near Frank’s Eddy, where villagers had complained that quarrying activities in the waterway posed a major threat to their growing ecotourism business. Today it appears that Belmopan has listened to their concerns and acted to safeguard the ecological health of the […]
It’s never easy to pinpoint exactly when and why public attitudes change, but one area on which Belizeans have taken on a new awareness is that of the environment. And while one reason is certainly the global influence of the media, another, closer to home, is the outreach work of the Belize Zoo. Today I […]
In the not too distant past, if you made your way to Goff’s Caye, chances are yours would be the only boat there. Even a crowded weekend would usually find no more than a half dozen skiffs moored in the clear blue waters off the beach. That, of course, was before the arrival of cruise […]
The saying “progress brings problems” is a familiar mantra in modern day Belize, and is applicable to everything from traffic jams to health problems. More recently the collision between old practices and new realities has been felt in the burgeoning tourism industry. Our rivers, for example, once highly valued for all the sand and gravel […]
They look like the kind of things they force contestants to eat on “Survivor” or “Fear Factor”. But these unappetizing creatures, brought to you by viewers near Northern Lagoon, are part of the reason Belize is rapidly losing its coconut trees. Around three inches long, they are the larval stage of the coconut beetle. As […]
The Ford Motor Company today launched its 2004 Conservation and Environmental Grants Programme in Belize, making us one of more than sixty countries participating in the initiative. This is the second year Ford and one of its subsidiaries, Jaguar, is providing funding for non-profit groups and individuals working to enhance environmental conservation and cultural heritage […]
Belize is well known internationally for its large population of manatees…but how many of us have actually seen one up close? This morning if you happened to be on the Southern Foreshore near the Bliss, you would have seen, not one, but perhaps as many as eight manatees cavorting in the shallow muddy waters at […]
The waters, cayes, and coastline that make up the Gulf of Honduras are still considered well off the beaten path…not just by tourists from North America and Europe, but even by most residents of the three countries that define it. But as the global stage shrinks and its smaller actors must fight ever harder to […]
Three primary school students are tonight celebrating their achievements in an art competition held by the Department of the Environment. Coordinated to coincide with World Environment Day, students used their time colouring, painting, and stencilling their poster ideas for the theme “Wanted! Seas and Oceans – Dead and Alive?” This morning D.O.E. announced the lucky […]
We can’t blame viewers if they’re a bit confused. Having recently observed Earth Day on April twenty-second, we are now asked to celebrate today, June second, as World Environment Day. Hey, it’s an important subject and we’ll go with the flow…and speaking of flow, this year’s theme focuses on the sea. Patrick Jones reports on […]
And while students were learning about Belize’s marine environment, twenty miles to the west, folks in Bermudian Landing were showing News 5’s Jacqueline Woods the latest developments at one of the country’s most popular inland wildlife attractions. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting It took only two weeks for fourteen students and a professor from the United States […]
Ever since the cruise craze took off in Belize several years ago, there have been rumblings from those in the overnight tourism industry who believed that large numbers of low cost day trippers was not the way to go. But recently those rumblings have moved from late night bar talk at the eco-lodges to the […]
With the formal start of the 2004 hurricane season only ten days away, we decided to make a quick check with the nation’s weather forecasters to see what to expect. According to Ramon Frutos, all signs point to a busy six months. Ramon Frutos, Agro-meteorologist “All the forecasts are indicating that the Atlantic Sea surface […]
In the media we know PACT–The Protected Areas Conservation Trust–as that organisation that every few months hands out cheques to local NGOs to initiate projects that help the environment. But go abroad in conservation circles and you will find out just how jealous the world’s environmentalists are of PACT and the kind of respect it […]
With numerous heavy rains in March, April, and May 2004 will go down in history as “the year without a dry season”. Today News 5’s Patrick Jones visited the Meteorology Department to find out what’s going on with Belize’s weather. Frank Tench, Forecaster “The dry season has been more wet than normal because of the […]
The Belize Barrier Reef, a world heritage site, is perhaps the country’s best known tourist attraction. But our reef forms the core of a larger entity known internationally as the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. With more than sixty marine protected areas included in the M.B.R.S., two dozen park rangers, who work at sites from Mexico […]
It’s a sentence that’s on just about every brochure about Belize…forty-two percent of our natural resources are protected. And although numerous studies have been conducted to highlight that fact, there has never been an effort to put together a protected areas policy and system plan to ensure that Belize’s resources are being properly managed…that is […]
