Press Release – Belmopan – February 18, 2013 – The Project “Enhancing Belize’s Resilience to Adapt to the Effects of Climate Change”, launched in September 2012 is being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Government of Belize (GoB), and funding of the European Union Global Climate Change Alliance (EU GCCA). The project aims to enhance adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change in national policies and demonstrate action in support of effective governance of climate change and climate change related impacts in the water sector in Belize.
As part of the larger project, two activities, namely the “Enhancement of National Capacities to Plan for and to Coordinate a National Response to the threats of Climate Change” and the pilot entitled “Applied Forest Management: Building Capacities for the Restoration of Watersheds Impacted by Natural Disasters” valued at over €865,000 / BZD $2.2m are being executed in partnership with the Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development. On Friday, February 15, 2013, three (3) Isuzu DMAX Pickup Trucks, valued at a total of US84,000 dollars were handed over to Minister Lisel Alamilla on behalf of the Ministry, as part of this project, which aims to support the development of a strategic framework for responding to the challenges that climate change poses for sustainable and economic development and to support activities leading to watershed protection, resilience to water quality degradation, and water conservation. It is expected that these motor vehicles will enhance the ability of the project units to create greater public awareness of the effects of climate change and enable restoration activities in sensitive and flood prone forest systems proving for the effective management and recovery of damaged forest stands. They will be able to ensure the mainstreaming of climate change considerations into national development planning and guarantee training of national and community responders and the establishment of a monitoring strategy for long term impacts on biodiversity and water resources.
Present at the brief handing over, were: UNDP Assistant Resident Representative Daniel Alemu, and Officials from the Ministries of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development; and Finance and Economic Development.
The national coordinating entity of the project is the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, while UNDP is the implementing partner. Other responsible parties of the project execution are the Southern Environmental Association; and the Ministries of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development; Natural Resources and Agriculture; Labour, Local Government, Rural Development and NEMO.
For more information, please contact:
Head of European Commission, Mr. Cosimo Lamberti Fossati, [email protected]
UNDP Environment Programme Analyst, Diane Wade-Moore, [email protected]
Government of Belize, Emily Waight-Aldana, [email protected]
