And from the coast to the reef, another pressing concern that has their attention involves coral bleaching and the overall reef health. She says while some variables can be controlled to prevent further harm to the reef, others like extreme temperatures and weather conditions are not within anyone's control. She gave us more details on that.
Beverly Wade, CEO, Blue Economy & Marine Conservation
"I think it's one of the things we are grappling with and the bottom line is that our reefs are in peril. We have come under some of the most extreme temperatures and we have also now been terribly impacted by the stony coral tissue loss diseases aside from the other normal diseases that impact reefs. And so what we have seen is that there are some resilient areas and that is one of them but our reefs on a whole we have bright spots. There are some areas we are seeing rebounding, we are hoping it's so. But I think what's more important is that we are not just sitting back and just saying oh the reef is dying and we are not doing anything. The government of Belize is committed to the total protection of 20% of Belize's reef and that is an important thing for us and we are actually looking at identifying what that 20% is by the end of this year and looking to see how we can designate those areas they are important for us because we have to ensure we have identified those areas around our reef that are important for genetics, for resiliency because we have to now have a strategy which we are also now developing a restoration strategy and policy to see how do we now respond. It's not something that we can respond to easily but the bottom line is that we are looking at how do we create that pathway for response so we are looking at that 20% of our reef to be totally protected and we are hoping that when we close on resilient bold belize which is the project for finance permanence that the prime minister mentioned in his speech earlier, that it will allow us now to bring in the kind of management that the 20% may need that's the first thing. The second thing is that we have excellent work that is being done by our partners on the ground and by the national coral reef monitoring network which is currently chaired by the fisheries department but that network is a group of dedicated experts both government and non governmental and even community experts that are working on our reef and that are monitoring the extent of bleaching and these events and helping us to put the strategy together for restoration."
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