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And, turning now to other news, the Blue Bond was a historic agreement, signed in 2021 between The Nature Conservancy and the Government in which GOB committed to strengthening and funding marine conservation. A few months later, in March 2022, The Belize Fund was established as the body responsible for disbursing the funds in the form of grants. These grants have been allocated to both governmental and NGO partners.
And though the staff at The Belize Fund is small, its work is important since it provides the checks, balances, and monitoring to ensure that the money is used in an effective way to preserve Belize's marine space.
But, there's a good chance this is the first time you're hearing of them. And that's why today they held a media sensitization session where we learned more about the work they do. The executive director, Dr Leandra Cho Ricketts, explained more.
Dr Leandra Cho Ricketts, Executive Director, The Belize Fund
"We wanted to have an opportunity to have a direct engagement with the media, just them, because we've invited the media to various activities we've had, we want to ensure that going back the media is aware of who the Fund is and the work so we can building these relationships to have a good partnership overtime because the Fund is here for, well, indefinitely and the funding coming from the Blue Bond that's supporting the programs currently is here for at least 20 years so we want to ensure we can start this relationship and keep it going."
"The whole Blue Bond as it was put together is a whole debt for nature swap and debt restricting which is a public priority, it's to assist the public over so the public should know what's happening with the proceeds of that and the funds we manage is public funds essentially because it's funding going back from the government going into conservation so it's important to be transparent with how that's being spent and to have everyone know what the funding goes to to dispel a lot of the current misperceptions that people have and so we see that the media is important we would love that you all reach out to us and be more engaged with the work that we're doing."
"I think in regards to roadblocks I think the biggest one would be the ability for the nongovernment groups, especially your smaller community groups and associations to access the funding because as you heard us explain, we have a structure, a part of transparency for pubic funds, and any conservation fund to be honest, you have a process, it's not just anyone that can come and say I want this money I'll just get it, you have to meet these criteria, so we found that the capacity is not always there for smaller groups, community groups, in terms of their registration and their ability to manage and report on the funds so we are working with the partners within the government and private sector to see how we can create a program to help build that capacity so we have greater access by smaller groups."
The funds are allocated through two programs, the Grants Award Programs and the Government Strategic Allocation. Both of them provide approximately $3.6 million. While the latter is for governmental agencies such as the Fisheries and Forest Departments, the former requires a submission from NGO's. In the 2022-2023 grant cycle, organizations such as TASA, Wildtracks, and Fragments of Hope were awarded.
