Belize Hosts Fourth Annual Climate Resilience Forum
This morning, stakeholders from across government, NGOs, fisherfolk, and academia gathered for the Ministry of Blue Economy and Marine Conservation’s Fourth Climate Resilience Forum. This event brought together diverse voices to tackle pressing challenges such as sargassum, beach erosion, climate change, and warming waters. There, attendees highlighted the accomplishments to Belize has made in marine conservation and the advancement of the blue economy while stressing the importance of collaboration and continuous improvement to safeguard Belize’s resources to ensure they benefit coastal communities for generations to come.
Andre Perez
Andre Perez, Minister of Blue Economy
“I stressed in my speech also importance of involving the youth. That is important. And while we say that they are the future, actually the future is here now. We’re building on the present right now, and I mentioned that we must have them as partners as of now. We can’t say it’s there for them in the future. This is something that we’re constantly. It’s evolving, all right? And that we have to be using smarter ideas. We have to use more innovation new technology there, not only in monitoring our waters, but also in to monitor illegal fishing. That is important. That it’s it goes beyond that, just using vessels. Now we’re looking into, to drones and, having all the collaboration with everybody here. So it’s not only just the Fisheries Department is there to patrol the waters, but it has to be done jointly with everybody working together.”
Beverly Wade
Beverly Wade, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Blue Economy
“We’ve made significant inroads in several areas. One of them is with regards to strengthening the framework for sustainable and successful blue economy growth in Belize. So we’ve recently, reviewed, modernized the legislation for coastal zone management in Belize. We’ve revised and modernized also the integrated coastal zone management plan, and we’re now looking at delivering, through the blue bonds, the Belize Sustainable Oceans Plan. These are very important for us because at the end of the day, they help to strengthen the blueprint of how we approach this space, both from a stewardship standpoint, but also from a development standpoint.”
Belize’s Ministry of Blue Economy is in the process of revising fisheries legislations with consultations already underway. Wade noted that that legislation is expected to be in place by the end of the year.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.