Phase two of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative was launched today at the Kiki Witz resort outside of Belmopan. It's a part of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan - and the minister of state explained how it works in the real world - outside of the very bloated conceptual framework:
Hon. Omar Figueroa, Minister of State, Environment
"Today we are here to celebrate the second phase of the biodiversity fiance initiative. As we all know Belize is a signatory to the convention on biological diversity. As part of our obligations on that convention we develop the national diversity strategy and action plan a few years ago. The plan speaks as to what we need to do to really secure the longterm biodiversity that we have in this country. As you know the biodiversity not only does it underpin out economy but it really also underpins the health and the safety of the Belizean people. So it is extremely important in the first phase the team identified gaps and potential mechanism that would allow biodiversity on a national level to really finance itself in terms of protection and long term sustainability. The launch that we see here today is actually one step further to really look at the mechanism that we really need to implement the entire initiative to make sure that we secure the resources to actually implement the biodiversity, strategy and action plan."
Hannah St. Luce-Martinez, National BIOFIN coordinator
"It has also assisted in establishing partnerships with members and persons from both the private and public sector. As I mentioned in the past we tend to had a divorce between the private and conservation groups and so now for BIOFIN we tend to see a lot more dialogue at the national level as it relates to not just biodiversity financing, but biodiversity management overall."
A release says BIOFIN was initiated in response to the urgent global need to divert more finance from all possible sources towards global and national biodiversity goals.
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