And after the ceremony, for the first time in over three years in office, the Prime Minister held a formal press conference. Of course, the conference was centered around the Belize Blue Bonds, and only two questions per media house were allowed. But it's still notable because it's the first time PM Briceno has spoken to the press in a press conference format.
And during the conference he spoke about the plans for the Resilient Bold Belize Conservation and Financial model, which will be implemented in 2025, and is being coordinated between the Blue Bond and Finance Permanence Unit and the WWF. And as a part of the RBB, fisherfolk will see the implementation of a Fisher Fund Loan. Here's how the PM and the Director of the BBFP Unit explained it.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The PFE, the Project Finance for Permanence, it's a very innovative tool whereby government and the NGO community, in this case, the Nature for Conservancy, the TNC, we have partnered to be able to raise a fairly large sum of money that then can be used for specific uses for marine conservation, both in the ocean space and in the coastal areas."
"And that means then that we will have these monies that can be used over a long period of time. And to also be able to meet our goals and our targets, but also that we can work with communities, because especially when you're take into conservation, the issue of climate change that is changing everything, as what Julie spoke earlier about."
"We have to be able to allow our marine community, our coastal communities to be able to start to make the necessary changes to adapt to what is in front of us. And we're hoping that by raising these funds, they can also use some of these funds to be able to help them and also to help us in the conservation of our coastal communities and our marine space."
Beverly Wade
"The target that we're looking at through resilient goal Belize, the PFE is approximately 160 million Belize dollars that is expected to support conservation, but key to it is strengthening the institutional and the governance framework."
"And also looking at how do we know bolster livelihoods to ensure that we make a difference in the wellbeing and welfare of Belizean people. As a matter of fact, we're already leveraging the work that we're doing with the PFE, with local institutions like the Development Finance Corporation currently."
"And the government has done an excellent job excellent job in allocating monies for MSMEs. And we are now using those monies, approaching those monies within the DFC to in the near future, the Ministry of Finance and the Blue Bonds Unit along with WWF, and the DFC will be launching what we're calling a Fisher Fund Program."
"And the objective of that is to now create an increase in the uptake of that money by the fishing community to improve their livelihoods and their operation and allow them to have an increase in their income at the end of the day."
