There are hundreds of flowers in Belize, ranging from the black orchid to the hibiscus, but after a rigorous elimination process only 12 made it on a calendar for 2006, and those 12 are featured in the first calendar focusing on the Natural Treasures of Belize. The calendar is a collaboration between the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT) and Bel-Caribe Communications. PACT"s Executive Director Valdemar Andrade and Bel-Caribe's Cynthia Henry stopped by our studios explained that while it is a commercial enterprise, all proceeds will be donated to conservation.
Valdemar Andrade, Executive Director - PACT
"This calendar features twelve common and not so common flowers of Belize and as you will see, the images are very clear, they are beautiful. They depict what you will normally see around Belize City, around the country of Belize with respect to the flowers."
Cynthia Henry, Bel-Caribe Communications
"A lot of Belizeans in our day to day work are not aware of all the beauty that surrounds us and we just feel that by starting this series, and showcasing all these natural beauties, that people will start to appreciate what we have much more. This year we chose flowers and it's not just the beauty of the flowers, its also educational. If you have the calendar up in your home there is a different flower for each month and then on the month itself there is a description of the flower. So our children can start to appreciate these beautiful flowers that we have. We wanted to showcase the ones that most people know of, that's in most people's yards so that they are easily recognizable as flowers of Belize. In addition of course we chose the most beautiful ones and there are some that are not beautiful as others."
Valdemar Andrade,
"It is an opportunity for us to fund raise. The money that we raise from this goes directly to our grants logogram in which we give out directly back to in small grants to small NGOs and the CDOs to ensure that they can continue doing the work to protect these natural species."
Cynthia Henry,
"I would just like to emphasize that purchase of these calendars goes towards helping conservation in Belize."
This again is the first in a series and selections for next year's calendar have already begun. No word yet on which natural species will be chosen.
