The results of an Eco Audit of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef were released this morning. The audit was carried out by Healthy Reefs Initiative in collaboration with the World Resources Institute and about forty local and government agencies and companies. Director of Healthy Reefs for Healthy People, Melanie McField, explained that seventy percent of the reef sites surveyed in 2010 were in critical condition with most threats coming from human activities.
Melanie McField Director, Healthy Reefs, says, The purpose of the eco audit is really to answer the simple question, are we doing all we can to help the reef. This analysis is looking at the collective effort, it is Government, NGO and private sector so together based on the recommendations we made in 2008 and the others in 2010, how are we doing. We are going to measure quantitatively, are we progressing, are we getting things done that we know we need to do in order to protect the reef. The eco audit idea is new, we don’t really know what we are doing, I said if we knew what we were doing it would not be research, everything in this eco audit has documents behind it and Price Water House was key in helping us be rigorous on that. The main results, the process and the criteria are all detailed in a document that is about 60 pages, we have this document in English and Spanish and again it details the 22 indicators that are in the audit.
The twenty-two standardized management indicators were developed across seven thematic areas that include Research, Education and Awareness, Marine Protected Areas, Global Issues, Coastal Zone Management, Sustainability in the Private Sector, Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management and Sanitation and Sewage Treatment. Roberto Pott from Healthy Reefs for Healthy People explains the country findings and points out some of the low and high scores for Belize.
Roberto Pott Healthy Reefs, says, I m glad that for Belize we could celebrate five out of seven, Belize is top for the region. Looking at marine protected areas, this is one of the areas that Belize has taken a lot of steps at trying to achieve what we think are some of the best goals for managing our marine resources and so we have the protected areas. The big issues were we are low in having fully protected zones, we really need to follow up on trying to expand our fully protected zones and strengthen the management. Looking at our coastal zone management and this has been a work in progress for over 10 years, we just can’t get it into the goal, we just can’t score the goal, we know that Coastal Zone is hard at work, trying to revise that plan but really we need ministerial and legislative approval of that plan once it is completed again so we are at a two but we are optimistic that in a blink of an eye that will step up to a four or five, and so there is room for improvement.
Belize also topped the region in Global issues especially by engaging in international or regional treaties that support conservation. The conference came to an end with remarks by the Director of Product Development in the Belize Tourism Board, Laura Esquivel-Frampton. A technical session for detailed review followed after the conference until noon.