The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Board of Directors has approved a five-year project to sustainably manage Belize's natural resources and promote alternative livelihoods for local communities.
The project will also strengthen institutional capacity to enhance climate resilience, including increasing ecosystem resilience to climate change impacts.
30 September 2014: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Board of Directors has approved a five-year project to sustainably manage Belize’s natural resources and promote alternative livelihoods for local communities. The project will also strengthen institutional capacity to enhance climate resilience, including increasing ecosystem resilience to climate change impacts.
Belize has the highest forest cover in Central America and the Caribbean and the largest barrier reef in the Americas, according to the GEF. It also notes that Belize has succeeded in preserving its biodiversity and forests, including intact virgin forest, to a greater extent than its neighbors. Still, agricultural expansion, forest fires, tourism and other activities have resulted in deforestation and threaten Belize’s biodiversity.
The GEF Management and Protection of Key Biodiversity Areas project will address these challenges through four primary objectives. It will work to: increase the number of hectares under sustainable forest management (SFM); enhance biodiversity protection in six protected areas (PAs); train local forest communities on sustainable harvesting and marketing of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and alternative livelihood options; and strengthen institutional capacity, with the aim of improving compliance monitoring and management of forest resources and the environment.
Sophie Sirtaine, World Bank Country Director for the Caribbean, underscored that by protecting Belize’s forest and “rich environmental resources,” as well as by supporting reforestation, the project contributes to mitigating the effects of climate change.
As part of its institutional strengthening component, the project will assist Belize in strengthening its climate resilience efforts by providing training for a carbon stock monitoring system and updating its National Protected Areas System Plan to better reflect climate change impacts in PA management.
The GEF is providing a US$6 million grant for the project and the Government of Belize is contributing US$3 million through in kind financing. [GEF Press Release] [Project Identification Document] [Project Appraisal Document]