Belizean NGOs Receive Funding for Natural Resource Conservation Projects

The Belize Nature Conservation Foundation (BNCF) and Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT) have provided much-needed funds to two Belizean NGOs working to conserve the country’s natural resources. The organizations work to aid registered management organizations in carrying out projects in the areas of general park management protection, environmental education, equipment, training, and research. Yesterday, under the BNCF’s new project cycle, Belize Karst Habitat Conservation (BKHC) and the Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary each received thirty-nine thousand dollars for their respective proposals. Protected Areas Manager of the BKHC, Jeanne Solis, says the entity will focus on researching the water quality of the Roaring River. 

Jeanne Solis, Protected Areas Manager of the BKHC: “The whole idea of the grant was to implement a water quality research and monitoring program seeing that we have two major tributaries bordering our nature reserve which would be Barton Creek and Roaring River. And so when I wrote the grant it was mainly for us to get the equipment to carry out research there as well as involving members from the buffer community, mostly youths to be a part of our community researcher program just for them to assist with the research, the water quality collecting. But apart from that, we also wanted them to be more involved with the things we do at Tapir Mountain because a lot of the things, or a lot of resources at Tapir Mountain benefits them. And for I would want to say a good 10 years or maybe less the buffer community has felt that they were left out from a lot of the things that happened in Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve just because of the nature reserve status that doesn’t allow them to be involved in any type of activities there. So we wanted to get rid of that whole mentality and just have them be fully involved. The total amount that we applied for was $39,000. The importance of the Roaring River to specifically the Tea Kettle, Black Man Eddy and Georgeville just because the river flows mostly in those areas and then it passes and leads into the Belize River and that’s why we are trying to have as much community researches from all our buffer community but our priority areas would be those communities for now.”

PACT serves as the administrator of the BNCF’s grants program, but the presidency is currently held by the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE). President of the BNCF, Asad Magana, spoke about how other NGOs can access funding to support efforts to protect the country’s natural resources. 

Asad Magana, President, BNCF: “The eligibility criteria in order to access the fund is one, you have to be registered. So it’s important that your organization – it can be an NGO or it can be a non-government organization, or it can be simply a CBO, a community-based organization, but it has to be registered so that’s the first criteria. The second criteria is that the objectives of the project proposal have to be aligned to the objective of the foundation which has to do with conservation of tropical forests. So those in general these I would say are the main criteria. Yes, also you have to be able to show that you have the capacity to implement the project. Aside from the project being aligned to the foundation’s overall objective the entity has to show that they have the capacity to implement the project successfully. So I would say these are the main criteria. So the fact that you are a registered organization, NGO, CBO, that your proposal has to be aligned to the objective of its foundation in regards to the conservation of tropical forests, and thirdly that the institution have the capacity to implement the project successfully. I think it’s important that the BNCF gets more visibility. I’m not sure if many persons are aware that this foundation exists, that funds are available. So probably that is one of the reasons why maybe we don’t have new NGOs and CBOs applying because they may not be aware that this foundation exists. So for this year, what we are doing is that we have already developed a communication plan and strategy and the aim is so that we can give more visibility to the foundation.”

The Belize Nature Conservation Foundation (BNCF) was the product of a Debt for Nature Swap with the United States Government and local NGOs in 2004.