Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future Awards Grants to Environmental NGOs

Today, the Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future (BFSF) provided three Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) with much-needed funding to continue their work. The entities received grants for projects focused on addressing plastic pollution, developing a marine conservation education program, and conducting a coastal erosion study. Additionally, the BFSF signed a strategic partnership with the Belize Marine Protected Areas Network to strengthen compliance and enforcement within Belize’s marine protected areas, ensuring effective management. BFSF’s Executive Manager Leandra Rickets spoke to Love News about the grants and partnership.

Leandra Cho Ricketts, Executive Director, The Belize Fund: “So there were three grants. These were concepts and proposals submitted to us from last year. And, you know, they took a bit of back and forth in refining and getting down the projects or the proposals to meet various requirements and based on recommendations from our technical committee that reviewed them. And so today we are able to grant these based on approval by the board. We had a grant to the Belize Tourism Industry Association for basically an educational awareness program for primary schools but also practitioners, so tour guides. And then we also awarded one to the National Garifuna  Council to look at our erosion study in Barranco, identifying causes of that erosion and measures to address it. And then the last one was for Humana, People to People. They’re focusing on, which basically converting plastic waste that they collect into products that can be sold. So it’s looking at an innovative new business. The first strategic partnership we signed today and awarded was to the Belize Marine Protected Area Network. And this is a network of five marine protected area co-managers. So the Belize Audubon Society, the Sartaneja Alliance for Conservation and Development, the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment, the Turneff Atoll  Sustainability Association and Southern Environmental Association. All these organizations co-manage with the government whether the Fisheries Department or the Forest Department, Marine Protected Areas. So the partnership is to support them for funding needs or enforcement.”

President of the National Garifuna Council Sheena Zuniga underscored the importance of the grant and how it will provide tremendous support for the NGO.

Sheena Zuniga, President, National Garifuna Council: “This grant will help us to do an erosion study for Brranco Village. It’s needed because our Garifuna communities and Southern Belize have been affected a lot by erosion. So we’re hoping that once we complete this project, it will give us an avenue to come up with short-term and long-term solutions. for the erosion problem in southern Belize. And maybe we can adopt that in the other Garifuna communities or adopt the procedures that we’ve done for this study we can adopt in other southern communities that affect the Garifuna people because it’s needed and we would need support from government, not only this fund, but from also the government. So far, this fund will also assist us to get a consultant who will work with us to develop this research and this study. So it is much needed and we’re very, very happy to have received this grant.”

The ceremony was held in Roaring Creek Village, Cayo District.