Belize now a Disgrace in the Protected Areas Management Field

These days as you watch the news about the management of the protected areas system in Belize, one feels embarrassed that just a few years ago Belize used to be touted as a leader in this field. Just how much incompetence and conflict of interest can one system handle?

Recently in the news you saw where a protected area was designated for a corridor reserve for Belize’s Jaguars and who should seem to be in opposition to the process but the Manager of the Association of Protected Areas (APAMO)? It would seem that there are some major issues afoot because APAMO should have been hailing this government for finally designating at least one protected area.

But it seems that it is the process that they had a serious issue over. The truth of the matter is that a National Protected Areas Policy and System Plan was developed over a 22 month process and finalized in 2005 to the tune of just over a million Belize dollars to guide the development and management of a protected areas system plan. This was done with wide consultation, inclusive of both major political parties. Under this plan, a National Protected Areas Commission (NPAC) was commissioned by the then Minister to guide the implementation and mainstreaming of the protected areas policy and system plan.

This Commission included all the key protected areas management agencies and key umbrella agencies in the public, NGO, and private sectors. However, it would now appear that this government has chosen to disband the Commission and it seems that no one, at least none of the agencies that were on the Commission, know where this whole protected areas management matter is going. The agencies have been told that the government has not been able to identify a coordinator which has created a delay in reactivating the NPAC.

Well now, rumor has it that Dr. Collin Young from Galen University is being hired as the Coordinator for this whole protected areas issue. Notice, it was not mentioned that he is being hired as the Coordinator for the Commission. This is because the government seems to be putting in place a new structure for Dr. Young to head up.  The incompetence referred to earlier lies in the fact that since this new Minister of Natural Resources and his CEO have taken over, they clearly have no interest or perhaps the capacity to ensure that the National Protected Areas Commission be brought back up to full function. And, this is not withstanding the fact that the National Protected Areas System Plan delineates all the possible structures that could be put in place for the governance of protected areas in Belize. This plan also contains all the tools that should be used to guide, de-reserve, and reserve protected areas. So, in effect the powers-that-be have the manual to manage the protected areas system, but it raises the question as to whether either the government and/or NGOs have bothered to read or internalize any of the documents and studies that make up this manual.

It is obvious that on the government’s part, that they are spending time and valuable resources reinventing the wheel on the structure that should govern the protected areas system, and on the NGO’s side, they have not held the government accountable by referring to the relevant sections of the National Protected Areas Policy and System Plan. How will this structure be assembled if no one has bothered to read the manual?

So just where is the conflict of interest? Well as many of you know, Dr. Collin Young is the boyfriend of Ms. Sharon Ramclam formerly Perrera, the Executive Director of PACT. But that in itself is not the conflict of interest. It is rumored that PACT will be paying his salary to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. The NGOs should be having a fit by now, or maybe they don’t know as yet, as they have been fighting with PACT for a long time to cover salaries for protected areas staff as part of the projects that PACT funds. But the NGOs should know about this since the Belize Audubon Society, the Community Baboon Sanctuary, APAMO and BACONGO are represented on the PACT Board.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first practice to deceive.” What a disgrace! From world leader Belize now seems to be regressing to … What a disgrace!!!

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