As you heard, the purpose of these assessments is to ensure the long-term viability of the reef system for future generations. But, is Belize's barrier reef actually healthy? Here's how he answered that:
Roberto Pott, Belize Coordinator, Healthy Reefs
"There was a global alert towards the end of 2015 and we were concerned that we were going to see some of the same die-offs that we saw in the early 2000 late 90's and so we are happy to report that it wasn't as severe, but we are still continuing to monitor the situation. Climate change is now a reality and we have to be able to monitor the impact that its having and report back to those who could make the decisions to change and make changes."
Daniel Ortiz
"What are some of the more prominent threats to the coral system in Belize, the Barrier Reef System?"
Roberto Pott, Belize Coordinator, Healthy Reefs
"Well we've seen a lot of fleshly macro agro growth, which is an indicator that we have a lot of nutrients moving into the water that comes from the need for better sewage management, better management of our water sheds. But we are seeing a lot of coastal developments as well and we've had movements with the coastal zone plan and so we need to follow through on that plan. So we are seeing where we understand that there is a need for development and there are issues like global climate change that we can't really addressed locally, but we need to be able to weather the storm and prepare for it."
The conservationists say that the 2018 Eco-Audit, should yield even better results than this current audit, given that the same sort of progress from the past 2 years continues. That's because there were some major actions taken just a few weeks after the period that this audit reviewed.
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