Category: Environment

Earlier this year, a series of wildfires spread rapidly throughout the country, devastating the livelihoods of farmers and displacing dozens of families. Also impacted by these fires were several protected areas and natural resources. To save these assets, multiple government and private sector organizations banded together to douse the flames. Also, on the ground during this process were the comanagers of these protected areas. Today, the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations, APAMO, held a press conference to voice concerns regarding the recently proposed policy changes and demand recognition for the work put in by comanagers. Christina Garcia, Executive Director of the Ya’axche Conservation Trust voices these complaints.

 

Christina Garcia, Executive Director, Ya’axche Conservation Trust

“One of the main things is capacity. And I say capacity from the side of the government. Because nobody thought that huge of a disaster would have happened in these areas.  And I think that earlier someone mentioned the commitments that the government has signed on to. We get a lot of forest loss. What do you think will happen to the carbon there?  And I know government debunk on that. There’s a legislation that is going to go forward specifically for carbon.  The legislation does not inspire any confidence to sign a comanagement agreement. So who will manage these protected areas?  The government?  We have seen over and over that there’s no capacity and funding to do this. So how are they going to meet those commitments?  So I think that the conversation is long overdue.  It needs to happen, whether they want it or not, because there’s lots at stake at the moment, and I don’t want to say this in a mean kind of way. But we bring a lot to the table. We bring a lot of changes. There’s not only protected areas involved, but communities as well. We work heavily with communities, unless if they want to see the deforestation rate goes up, we already, they have problems with deforestation. The fires even made it worse. . So what’s going to happen next? The training and community, the training of the community, a lot invested in these areas, so  they shouldn’t take us lightly.”

The Ya’axche Conservation Trust has joined forces with various stakeholders, including the Government of Belize, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Global Environmental Facility, to implement a four year project in the Maya Golden Landscape of Toledo District.  This initiative integrates biodiversity conservation, protected areas management and sustainable livelihoods at the landscape level.  Executive Director Christina Garcia tells us more.

 

Christina Garcia, Exec. Dir., Ya’axche Conservation Trust

“It is a project that was formulated four years ago with support from the Government of Belize, particularly the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Climate Change.  So yesterday, we had a project launch with the government officials and other state actors, just basically outlining hat the project is going to be and the level of support for what is going to be needed by the Food and Agriculture Organization, but also the Government of Belize.  So the project focuses on various aspects and it will be implemented in ten indigenous communities in the Toledo District and it looks at the development of certain plans, particularly for key biodiversity areas that we manage which is the Maya Mountain North Forest Reserve.  We’ll be developing a thorough plan for that area.  We’re encompassing the feedback from stakeholders, particularly the Trio community.  The project also looks at developing a policy guideline for non-timber forest products and this is something that we have going on in the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve for quite a while and so it’s just the formality and making sure that a policy is established, of course with endorsement by the relevant agencies, regulatory agencies such as the National Biodiversity Office and the Forest Department.”

According to Garcia, the project launch and implementation are both timely, in the wake of devastating wildfires that ravaged farmlands, destroying agricultural crops.

 

Christina Garcia, Exec. Dir., Ya’axche Conservation Trust

“This project comes at a very handy time because, as you know, the devastation that we suffered in the Toledo District has been of mass, I would say, destruction because we never thought that fire would have raged with all these agro-forestry farms.  So the project comes in very handy because agro-forestry is a tool that we utilize for restoration of these lands and I think that the farmers are going to be very grateful for having the implementation of these systems within their farmlands so they’ll have the opportunity to restore what the fire has destroyed.  For example, some of the agro-forestry farms, farmers have lost cacao, coffee, timber, and other fruit trees.  So the project will basically help these farmers to restore these farmlands, but at the same time, you know, making sure that there are best practices that are implemented in the prevention of these fires.  Of course more going towards adopting the sustainable agricultural practices and moving away from the traditional slash and burn that is utilized for crop cultivation.”

The rains of the past week have brought on new challenges for people in the flood-prone areas, but it was just over a month ago that the country was praying collectively for some rains to quell the raging wildfires that were sweeping through so much of the rainforest and farmland. Today News Five asked the Minister of Sustainable Development, Orlando Habet for an update on how bad the wildfires really were. He said that NEMO was preparing a final assessment and so was the Forestry Department.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“From our side, the Forest Protection Agency, we’re doing a comprehensive assessment. We’re looking at satellite images trying to move out those areas that were affected last year and fires from two years ago. And so you can only hone down on what happened this year and to really come up with those pictures and possibly a value because of emissions. So it’s underway; we already have some pictures, already satellite images. We have been collaborating with other institutions, NASA, and so we’re getting that information and hopefully within the next week or so we’ll be able to finalize that and take it to Cabinet to do a Cabinet information paper.”

How all of this will factor into Belize’s standings at this year’s COP Conference in terms of carbon credits and the benefits we are seeking is yet to be determined. Habet said that while a lot of the forests were burnt, only about ten percent of it was irretrievably destroyed. The rest, he said will regrow with time, and the current rains, coupled with the ashes that formed after the infernos are good for that regrowth to occur.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“We lose some credits if we cannot show that we prevented certain emissions. Really, we initially painted a picture of the area got burned and destroyed. It wasn’t burned and destroyed. They were affected by fire, but only about 10 percent from the information I’m getting was damaged to the extent that it will not regenerate. But most of it will regenerate. Now that the rains have come out, now all those seeds that are on the ground will find fertile soil, especially with the ashes providing a natural environment for growth. And so some of the fires were good for the Pine Ridge Mountain. The area near San Antonio, where we have the protected area for the Elijio Panti National Park, there was some damage, not extensive, but there was some damage. And so all that will be assessed so that we can put a value to it.”

Today the Ministry of Blue Economy held its second Climate Resilience Fair. It followed the Climate Resilience Forum on Thursday, and is a testament of the efforts of everyone, including the N.G.O. community, who have contributed to ensuring that Belize is more climate-resilient than it was in previous years. The fair also precedes World Oceans Day on Saturday, a day set aside globally to bring awareness to the important role the world’s oceans plays in life on the planet. News Five stopped in at the fair and spoke with a few of the people that made the event possible. Here’s that report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

The impact of climate change on the Earth has prompted countries to introduce measures that people can follow to slow down the process and, at best, reverse those impacts. Felicia Cruz, the Director of Blue Economy, says that the planet’s waterways have suffered immensely, not only from climate-related activity, but from human behaviour as well.

 

Felicia Cruz, Director, Blue Economy

“Our seas, of course, have been faced with unprecedented challenges, as you mentioned: climate change, over-fishing, pollution – it’s a combination of many factors that have affected our fishing sector. But at the end of the day, our government remains adamant in ensuring that we sensitize the people and that we also enforce the laws of Belize.”

 

 

 

The Wildlife Conservation Society has been actively engaging fishing and farming communities in methods to not only adopt, but to adjust those behavioural patterns that have helped to damage our planet. Communications Coordinator, Deseree Arzu says the focus is to help these communities develop their first-ever climate action and management plan.

 

 

 

 

 

Deseree Arzu, Communications Coordinator, Wildlife Conservation Society Belize Program

“We’re working in three communities in Belize of the M.F.C, of course, you’ve done the storytelling competition that we’ve had in the Maya Forest Corridor. So we’re working there to restore forests. We’re also working at Glover’s Reef, which is at Middle Key where we have our research station. And we’re working with Saltwater Key Marine Reserve as well, which Saltwater and Glovers are two of the areas where W.C.S. does a lot of research work. So we’re promoting nature based solutions in order to address climate change.”

 

Marion Ali 

“What message are you taking to these same communities to let them know that listen – climate change – a big part of it has to do with human behavior, human activity. A lot of the health of the environment has to do with what we do with the environment?”

 

 

 

 

Deseree Arzu

“Small things we can do like we keep saying this, but the more we repeat it I believe hopefully it sticks with people. Things like turning off the faucet when you’re brushing your teeth not throwing garbage on the in the environment and putting it in a bag until it reaches somewhere to place it in a secure location.”

 

 

 

Founded in 1987, the Hol Chan Marine Reserve is the first established marine reserve in Belize. Its responsibilities include monitoring and managing the reserve and working on projects such as the sea turtle nesting program in Ambergris Caye. Executive Secretary, Vicky Coc told us that visitors to Hol Chan follow the rules and regulations in keeping it as healthy as possible, for the most part.

 

 

 

 

Vicky Coc, Executive Secretary, Hol Chan Marine Reserve

“The people in San Pedro, we do care about our reef. As long as we keep working with them, we keep educating them and sharing with them about the do’s and don’ts, then we have a very positive community feedback. They actually respect, you know, our rules and regulations at the reserve. We also have our operations and enforcement team that is out at the reserve 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We can say that our guides and guests are very cooperative when it comes to that.”

 

 

 

Today’s climate-resilience fair was held a day before World Oceans Day on Saturday. Marion Ali for News Five.

Across the country, wildfires have been wreaking havoc across thousands of acres of farmland and forests, leading to a loss of millions of dollars in agriculture. Another significant loss is in the loss to the carbon credit market. Carbon credits are a mechanism used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by creating a market in which companies or governments compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere. For years, Belize has been a trailblazer in the carbon offset market, with the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area being one of the first carbon offset projects in the world. However, due to the recent fires, the protected area, among others, has suffered a significant loss. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with more details.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Thousands of acres of land have been lost to the fires that tore across the country over the past several weeks. As the characteristically long dry season ends and the rainy season begins, the government and environmental organizations are assessing the damage, which they estimate is in the millions. Jose Perez, Executive Director of the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations provided some insight into what those figures look like.

 

Jose Perez, Executive Director, APAMO

“The destruction of these pristine forests when you enter a protected area, what you will find is pristine, broadleaf trees, vegetation. And that is what has been burning in mostly Elijio Panti in the Rio Bravo conservation and management area and some protected areas down in the south up to now without the figures. Of those in the south, we estimate that it’s over ten thousand acres of pristine forests that had been burnt and are still burning. In Tapir, if you try to put a figure to the environmental damage and ecological damage at four hundred acres that were burnt earlier this week, it was just emitted about two million dollars. So do the math, for over ten thousand acres.”

 

 

One area that has been heavily affected is the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area in  northwestern Belize. Edilberto Romero, Executive Director of Programme for Belize, which manages the area, told us that while the team has been dealing with fires for several years, it has gotten progressively harder to manage.

 

Edilberto Romero, Executive Director, Program for Belize

“We’ve been dealing with fires ever since we started. We have seen a shift in 2011 after Hurricane Richard, where the fires have just grown exponentially. Summarily, we used to be able to manage fires with sixteen thousand Belize dollars. Now it’s costing us seventy, eighty thousand Belize dollars to manage fires. And this is because you need to have your fire lines. You need to plan before the fire season. You need to do education. You need to meet with the communities, sensitize the communities, sensitize the fires. You need to compartmentalize your area. And that’s a lot of heavy equipment work. And then when you have to be actively monitoring using different ways of monitoring.” 

 

 

Since this climate shift in 2011, fires are more frequent and becoming more difficult for the team to manage. The Rio Bravo Area has lost over three thousand acres from fires just this year alone.

 

Edilberto Romero

“We’ve lost approximately three thousand acres this year in eight fires. It’s a lot, but it’s eight fires. This is since the season in February. Since the fire season up to last weekend where we detected a fire in Friday and by Sunday morning that had been outed. But if we would not have been prepared, one fire would have been two thousand, three thousand acres if we didn’t do the work the timely response and put the resources in it.”

 

 

 

The vast wilderness in Orange Walk District was among the first of seven protected areas in the world to join the carbon offset market, making Belize a world leader in the movement. However, with these losses, the reserve has lost millions of dollars in potential revenue, as the area affected was at the final stages of preparation before it was to be traded for carbon credits. Carbon credits are used by cooperations and government entities to allow them to emit a set amount of carbon into the atmosphere. By purchasing a credit, the emission is offset by the preservation of a forest reserve.

 

 

 

Edilberto Romero

“You cannot generalize because every type of forest has different amount of carbon that they store. But if you use an average figure, it’s like one hundred fifty, two hundred tons of carbon per acre that you may be able to claim from carbon credits. Having one ton of carbon as one credit. Those credit have different prices depending on the market, you sell it the lowest. For us, It has not been lower than ten dollars but if you put that lowest figure you’re talking about millions of dollars that’s been lost. In our 2011 fire, we were talking one point six million tons of co2 equivalent and if you put that at ten dollars then you’re talking about sixteen million dollars.”

 

Romero attributes the difficulty with managing the fires to the low funding NGOs receive and the hoops that they must jump through to receive assistance.

 

Edilberto Romero

“The problem with fires is that NGOs, I’m talking about protected areas here, NGOs do not have money to deal with those fires. And for you to control the fire, you have to have quick response. You have personnel, but that’s not sufficient for large fires. You need heavy equipment and other things. And if you don’t have the monies for that, then you try to figure out where to get it. And by the time you get confirmation, two days have passed, three days, the fire is now huge. It becomes more, more expensive.”

 

 

He recommends that a contingency plan be set in place so that protected areas like the Rio Bravo can have the capacity to counteract and respond to fires before it gets too late, and millions of dollars in carbon credit are reduced to ash.

 

Edilberto Romero

“My recommendation is at a country level, we, for Rio Bravo, we have contingency of ten thousand to quickly respond as soon as possible. But for the country, all protected areas now should have a fire contingency fund and their plan. For the country, we need to look at Belize as the entire country under fire threat and we need to put a contingency fund that is there ready to respond that you don’t have to get no kind of clearance because if you take one day to get approval, that’s a lot. If you take three days, that’s too much, much less a week and then it becomes more risky and it becomes problematic to the health of the people and everything that comes along. And then you have more expense having to support the community’s damage, the farmer’s damage and everything.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.

In the south, wildfires have also devastated huge tracts of land in a protected area managed by the Ya’axche Conservation Trust.  The organization has been busy over the past few weeks fighting these fires that have destroyed crops and displaced wildlife in the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve.

 

Christina Garcia, Exec. Dir., Ya’axche Conservation Trust

“We’ve been battling with fire in the Maya Golden Landscape for the past month.  First fire that affected the preserve, the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve, our rangers and fire management crew have been battling fires in the preserve that have destroyed a little over two thousand acres of forest within the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve.  So we’ve been battling in terms of controlling that fire so that the fire does not reach the field station, an investment that we have here for over twenty-five years.  Apart from the fire in these protected areas, we’ve also been assisting communities in controlling fires within their farming landscape.  So a lot of the work that has been carried out over the past weeks is with the beneficiaries that Ya’axche works with, controlling fires and ensuring that those fires do not completely destroy all the farmscapes and the different agro forestry systems that we have created jointly with the farmers over the years, although that has been very difficult because as you can see from images that the news has reported on, there has been a lot of damages in these communities, especially the farms, especially the destruction of cacao and different fruit trees, timber saplings and this is actually food that the farmers depend on.”