For the last two days, Blancaneaux Lodge has played host to the Belize 2022; Conservation Symposium. It's a first-of-its-kind event that's brought together most if not all of Belize's environmental NGOs as well as a handful of their international counterparts.
It's an opportunity to Celebrate Belize's environmental accomplishments, Collaborate on future successes and continue the work of conservation.
This symposium was really the brainchild of European nature trust founder Peter Lister. He's handpicked many of the international participants all of whom have a breadth of knowledge and experience in this integral field. One such participant is Ignacio Jimenez, a Spaniard who spent over two decades working on re-wilding efforts in Argentina. He traveled to Belize for this symposium and this afternoon he shared some advice for Belize conservation efforts with Cherisse Halsall. Here's more
Ignacio Jimenez, Coordinator of Protected Areas, Fundacion Global Nature
"My role was to bring ideas from outside that they already knew but that they could be like okay this guy has this experience and is saying something similar but I mean if I had to kind of summarize this concept I think if you are going to talk to the public and you want the public to care about conservation move from a message of disaster to a message of wonder because conservationist tends to say oh! No, we're losing this, we're losing this. No, we have this and it's amazing but we have to take care of it because it's fragile and if you're going to talk to the government and politicians, move from complaining to possibilities. So, instead of Mr. Minisister Mr. President we need more money because we are doing this and we don't have resources you say wow we have this opportunity and this is great the Maya, Mountains, we have Caracol and we have this culture you put all this together and you invest a little, it's gonna be great and it's gonna be good for nature, it's gonna be good for people and it's going to be good for you as an authority."
