It's a World Heritage Site which we say is priceless, but that hasn't stopped Belize's tourism planners from watching idly as the Barrier Reef gets stressed out by daily swarms of visitors.
For proof of that you need only look at the 5 cruise ships that docked today. So we are doing the talk but certainly not the walk as we aggressively continue to promote rapacious mass tourism while claiming to be environmentally conscious. Well, for what it's worth the lip service is paying off as today Belize signed the papers to head a $6 million project to manage the Meso-American Barrier Reef System (MBRS).
The United Nations and US-AID Guatemala are footing the bill and Minister of Environment John Briceno says it will be well spent:
Hon. John Briceno, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment,
Certainly its going to be used under these 3 themes, sustainable fishing because we know that when you do over fishing it can have negative effects on we are having record number of tourists in fact we expect about 975,000 cruise passengers this year. So we have to ensure that they can use and enjoy our natural resources but also that it is left for future generations. Then there is watershed management, which is also an important concern more than ever. For instance in Guatemala and Honduras over the past years they had drought situation so we need to know how to manage water to have it forever.
Keith Swift, 7NEWS
Why was Belize chosen?
Carmen Gonzalez, US-AID Guatemala,
Belize is the base for many international donors for reef management. You have a large reef on the coast and its had a lead position in the region of reef management and it committed to conserve the reef in 1997 Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize.
Keith Swift,
How do you reconcile a prompt of sustainable tourism when Belize is trying to promote sustainable tourism?
Hon. John Briceno,
That is the very issue. We recognize that as we are having this type of development in tourism we need to ensure that we have are protected.
Funding was split in half with $3 million from US-AID Guatemala and the other $3million from the United Nations. The three-year project will be managed in Belize but implemented in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, as well as Belize. Managed from Belize because our 176-mile reef comprises the major part of the reef systems.
_7NEWS_was produced for Broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez and edited for the internet by Keith Swift