By Aaron Humes: Fishermen and tour guides in southern Belize are speaking out against the Resilient Bold Belize initiative, a project aimed at expanding marine protected areas. The initiative, developed by the Government of Belize and other partners, seeks to increase the total area of coral reefs under full protection from 4 percent to 20 percent by 2026.
Stakeholders claim that they were not adequately consulted about the project, with many learning about it through social media or word of mouth. Eworth Garbutt, President of the Belize Flats Fishers Association, expressed frustration, stating, “I went personally over to Independence and found out for the cooperative guys, so what’s happening? Do you guys know anything about Resilient Bold Belize? I think the answer was zero, none. No one, out of 100 fishermen, none of them knows about [it] except for the 4 that went to the meeting or so-called consultation in Placencia.” He added that the threat to Belize’s fisheries is not from honest local fishermen but those unable to keep to the right side of the law, as well as climate change and poaching by Honduras and Guatemala.
The fishermen and tour guides are concerned that the protected areas will overlap with their fishing grounds, threatening their livelihoods. Nigel Martinez, Director of the Belize Federation of Fishers, emphasized that the areas recommended for high biodiversity zones need to be reassessed to ensure that they do not harm the interests of grassroots people.
Glenn Eiley of the Placencia Tour Guide Association observed that “…there’s a lot more pressure that will come on those areas that are open if those size of areas will be closed off. and we have all these fisherfolk, all these tour guides going into that area that will all of a sudden not be able to, because it’s not everybody who snorkels and dives, a lot of them fish so if they are not allowed to go there and just do sport fishing, it begs the conversation.”
A meeting to validate the proposed no-take areas scheduled for Thursday was postponed at the group’s request.
The Ministry of the Blue Economy has promised to conduct more focused consultations while the validation workshop is on pause. Beverly Wade, Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry, assured that the government is committed to protecting the country’s marine resources while also considering the needs of local communities.
The post Fisherfolk and tour guides raise concerns over Resilient Bold Belize initiative appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Aaron Humes: Fishermen and tour guides in southern Belize are speaking out against the Resilient Bold Belize initiative, a project aimed at expanding marine protected areas. The initiative, developed by the Government of Belize and other partners, seeks to increase the total area of coral reefs under full protection from 4 percent to 20
The post Fisherfolk and tour guides raise concerns over Resilient Bold Belize initiative appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.