Belmopan farmers are one group who will have to deal with the effects of global changes in climate. This week a workshop is underway to outline policy options for dealing with what could be one of the major environmental challenges of the new millenium. Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting Chief Meteorologist, Carlos Fuller says climate change affects […]
The Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve may be suffering from the devastation of the Southern Bark Beetle, but that has not stopped the creation of a new park in the reserve’s northwestern corner. Minister of Natural Resources Johnny Briceno signed the official instrument on Friday night at the San Antonio Agricultural Fair, designating approximately five […]
The Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute may be a mouthful of words to pronounce, but its mission is pretty straightforward: preserve and sustainably develop a vital part of Belize’s territory. Jose Sanchez was in Belmopan this morning when the Zonians presented their recommendations to government. Jose Sanchez, Reporting With the bulk of Belize’s population […]
Belizeans and tourists alike who visit the nation’s highest peak will soon see some improvements to the area. This is thanks to a fifty thousand dollar grant from the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, PACT, to the Belize Audubon Society. The money will be used to document the various species of plant and animal life in […]
If you think that it’s tough these days for prosecutors to put everyday criminals like robbers, rapists, drug dealers and murderers in jail, it’s even more difficult to punish people who violate the country’s environmental laws. Things may be changing, however, as News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams discovered this morning. Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting Law enforcement officers […]
One of the more controversial issues dominating the nation’s environmental debate is the recommendation for a comprehensive programme to manage Belize’s solid waste–better known as garbage. Environmental officer Martin Alegria commented on a proposal to site a central sanitary landfill at mile twenty-seven on the Western Highway. Martin Alegria “Based on the technical input that […]
With new infrastructure and increasing economic activity gradually working its way south, the focus in Toledo is also shifting towards preservation of the district’s natural resources. This morning an agreement was signed which should enhance the future of one of Toledo’s crown jewels: the Sapodilla Cayes. The memorandum of understanding, signed by the Fisheries Department […]
The week’s second regional conference opened this morning in Belize City and News 5’s Ann-Marie Williams found that the delegates had come to the right place. Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting CARICOM Ministers of Finance and Planning this morning met with their colleagues, who are responsible for the environment, as the first joint meeting of CARIFORUM ministers […]
One of the decisions announced today by Cabinet was that funding, to the tune of one million dollars, has been allocated for fighting the Southern Pine Bark Beetle. That’s the bug that has already fatally infected over sixty percent of the Mountain Pine Ridge. Coincidentally News 5’s Jose Sanchez was in the pine ridge yesterday […]
Disasters come in many shapes and sizes… and not all explode with the suddenness of a burning tank of butane. The catastrophe, which promises to destroy our Entire Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve entered like a thief in the night… and by the time authorities reacted it, was already too late. Critics point out that […]
More experts continue to confirm the devastating news that the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve will soon be little more than a desolate wasteland. At a meeting in Belmopan to update officials on the situation, Chief Forest Officer Oswaldo Sabido reported that the Southern Pine Beetle currently infests sixty percent of the reserve’s one hundred […]
Beginning next month an environmental group based in San Pedro will conduct detailed research on the Nassau Grouper. The study by Green Reef has become necessary due to the steady depletion of this particularly tasty and vulnerable specie throughout the Caribbean. Today, Green Reef received a cheque for over fifty-six thousand dollars from the Global […]
People who want to experience nature usually have to leave Belize City, but it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Just a few hundred yards beyond the Faber’s Road Extension lies a beautiful lagoon, surrounded by mangrove that has somehow survived amidst the hustle and bustle of urban life. The Belize City Council has […]
Belize has become a regional trailblazer in the compilation of environmental statistical data. The Central Statistical Office has released its second “Compendium 2000”, publication as a guide for local green policy-makers. Statistician Edgar Eck says the manual can be considered an environmental watchdog. Edgar Eck, Statistician, CSO “This new publication has been designed in a […]
Two international experts are currently in Belize to recommend ways of dealing with the first-ever outbreak of Southern Pine Bark Beetle infestation of the Mountain Pine Ridge. They are Dr. Robert A. Haack, research entomologist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and Claus Eckelman, Food and Agriculture Organisation forest officer for the Caribbean. […]
A study on the effect of mainland agriculture on the barrier reef suggests that the present level of farming has not been harmful to the marine environment. The Watershed Reef Interconnectivity Scientific Study looked at soil erosion and sediment runoff from the North Stann Creek, South Stann Creek and Sittee River. Delia Tillett, the project’s […]
Significant measures are being taken by government towards the control and eradication of the Southern Pine Bark Beetle, which threatens to decimate the trees of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. The Belize Agricultural Health Authority, BAHA, has announced two directives to combat the problem. One order states that the beetle is a notifiable plant […]
Last week we reported on the Southern Pine Beetle ravaging the Mountain Pine Ridge. One of the primary reasons given for the beetle’s attack on over sixty thousand acres of the pine trees, is government’s cutback on a thinning program, in which trees are planted widely apart to prevent fire hazards and from competing for […]
In 1997 Belize became a member of the Montreal Protocol, an environmental agreement which was developed in 1989 to address the issue of the ozone layer in our atmosphere and its alarming rate of shrinkage. To date there are one hundred and seventy three countries that have ratified the protocol along with its four amendments. […]
It’s a tiny creature, but as we’ve already learned from mosquitoes and mealy bugs, when it comes to dangerous insects size does not matter. The latest pest to threaten Belize’s well being is called the Southern Bark Beetle and if left unchecked it could destroy one of our most popular recreation areas and most productive […]
It has been suspected for some time, but officials in the Ministry of Natural Resources have now confirmed that our spectacular Mountain Pine Ridge may one day soon be reduced to just a Mountain Ridge. The problem is the southern bark beetle, a pest which has invaded the area and infested as much as fifty […]
Cabinet held a meeting yesterday in which it approved a five percent environmental tax on all imports of empty plastic containers and on the value of products packaged in plastic containers. While this tax is still being worked out, Bowen and Bowen, Belize’s largest producer of soft drinks and bottled water does not expect it […]
Their first donation to Belize’s hurricane relief effort, a hastily written cheque for twenty-thousand dollars, was simply the amount saved by canceling the embassy’s national day party scheduled for October tenth. On Monday, however, the government of Taiwan reached much deeper into its bank account when Ambassador Charles Tsai presented a draft for four hundred […]
Water is not the only thing Hurricane Keith left in its path. The sanitation workers at the Belize City Council have been picking up debris and fallen trees throughout the city. Assistant chief sanitation officer Calvin Neal says the Council is working hard to put the city back together. Calvin Neal, Assistant Chief Sanitation Officer […]
On Saturday, a small army of Belizean youths will be out in force to clean up our coastline and rivers. The annual activity is held in connection with the international coastal cleanup organized by the Centre for Marine Conservation based in Washington, D.C. Several years ago the National Scouts of Belize became hosts of the […]
