Last week, big news broke for the Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association - or TASA for short. That's the organization that co-manages the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve, and they are about to get access to a much-needed infusion of financing in the form of 1.2 Million US dollars.
It comes by way of a partnership with several international funding organizations known as Mirova, IUCN, and Blue Finance. With this finance, TASA wants to establish an eco-tourism model for the reserve so that it can generate its own revenues to continue the protection of approximately the 132,000 hectares of coral reef ecosystems that make up the protected area.
TASA, like many other organizations, took a major hit during the height of the pandemic. It is estimated that they lost about 750 thousand dollars to continue their operations and keep their entire staff employed during those very lean financial times.
Last Friday, the organization's Executive Director hosted a press briefing to discuss this new access to funding that is being described as "blended finances":
Valdemar Andrade - Executive Director, TASA
"One of the reasons we have attempted this is because for - at least for the decades that I have worked in this field - marine protected areas, and protected areas, in general, are on the basis of grants. And I am sure you all know this. The funds, the grant funds are becoming more and more scarce, especially in this region. And so, we have to look at how we can sustainably fund the management of protected areas. So, in looking at that, at TASA, we are pioneering this approach to be able to scale up to the entire system, provided that the other marine protected areas have similar requirements in place."
"This is an entire business approach. It's basically a loan approach, where we made a case to them in what is the value of Turneffe in terms of its contribution to the economy, in terms of conservation impact. So, that's around 500 million Belize dollars per annum, which includes shoreline protection, about 150 million annually in tourism - this is pre-COVID. You have another 5 to 7 million dollars from fishing. We have an estimated 7-million-dollar value of blue carbon, and we have a non-estimated amount for deep-sea fisheries."
"And so, we have come, having that discussion with them. Initially, they offered us 2 million US dollars because - but when we ran feasibility [study], and because we're still in a COVID situation, we decided that we would look at a facility for around 1.2 million dollars, 750 thousand in loan, and the other in grants, that we will be able to raise from the partnership. So, in this case, one of the larger grants is from IUCN. So, they are helping us to put in place some of the infrastructures, to put in place some of the equipment for both the tourism and the conservation impact, in terms of enforcement, monitoring, and science aspects to be able to show how we would be able to raise these revenues to pay back the loan."
"It's one of the first, especially with marine protected areas, and the idea is that this is an entrepreneurial approach in terms of raising funds to put toward the management of the marine protected area."
"The investors here, while they are private sector, and not necessarily in a straight grant opportunity, are not only interested in the revenues but are interested in their financing helping to drive conservation impact as well."
The funding provides TASA with upfront capital to invest in the new entrepreneurial features contemplated in this business approach to the conservation of the reserve.
