Source: The Reporter

09/15/06 

Belize has won three of eleven white water to blue water WW2BW partnership grants.The funding for the grants was made possible through the U.S Department of State Third Border, Bureau of Oceans, International invironmenal and Scientific Affairs Initiative Economic Support Funds.

The grant is issued to organizations who are apart of the battle to maintain the development process, as well as improving enironmental impacts in the Gulf of Mexico and the wider Caribbean.

The grant program is a one that fosters relationships that help to improve coastal and Marine ecosystem-based management, integrated water shed management, sustainable tourism, and environmentally sound marine transportation. The initiatve came about as a result of the ground work set up during the group’s partnership conference in 2004 to encourage those involved to address priority issues that may benefit all those involved and in at the end introduce a strategy that will be effective.

Belize’ s grant sums up to $ 69,981.00 U.S dollars and was distributed among three organizations from the United States of America who are in Belize doing conservation work within the environment.

The organizations are as follows: the Ecological Development Fund, which is from Cambridge Masachusets U.S.A responsible for the Conservation tourism by native communities in the Sarstoon Temach region of Belize, received $25,000 U.S. The project will reduce the pressure on the National Park in Belize by placing the necessary structures in place to make tourism a reality for communities that may not have the right environment for it and to create better health conditions for a population which depends on clean water and sufficient food cultivation.

Another $23,331.00 U.S went to The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL), from San Francisco California U.S.A to continue providing special training and technical assistance to help San Pedro, Belize manage and conserve Coral Reef areas. The fund will also will be used to teach environmental practices and facilitate local conservation projects.

The Wild life Trust from Petersburg Florida received the remaining portion of the grant to the sum of $ 21,000.00 U.S dollars for the countering emerging water craft-related manatee deaths in Belize project. The project will provide an investigative study of manatee mortality as well as where they live and how they distribute across the sea. The result of the study will then be used by the goverment of Belize to implement laws that will protect the the remaining species.