Three delegates from the UNESCO World Heritage Center are in Belize to talk about the protection of the Belize Barrier Reef. The main objective is to get Belize's Barrier Reef off a 2009 list of endangered sites. There are multiple threats facing the Barrier Reef and OCEANA along with its UNESCO partners is trying to inform the public as well as the government about the detrimental effects the damage or erosion of the Barrier Reef will have on the country. They told us more today:..
Janelle Channona, Vice President OCEANA
"So in 2009, the government was informed that the Belize Barrier Reef system was being placed on this site's endanger list and the threats identified included sale and development within the immediate vicinity of the world heritage site. As you know 7 sites make up the world heritage site system in Belize. They extend from Bachalar Chico in the north all the way down to southern waters. So, we have 7 sites, but in reality they comprises the entire Belize Barrier Reef system and that's how its shows up on the map; it's the Belize Barrier Reef System. So they treat it as the entirety of the system. They identified that sale of lands and development projects within the world heritage site system was considered a threat. They identified oil concessions, meaning oil related activity, was a serious threat. They talked about species, lionfish, even coconut trees. The situation that we are going into this week as I understand it is that government will be identifying concrete steps forward to deal with these threats and to prove that we are serious about protecting the status and this is how we are going to get there and this is the timeline we are going to get there in and this is the message that we are going to send to the world that, we acknowledge that this is a universally important title and we are serious about maintaining our world heritage site status."
Alyssa Carnegie, Communications Director, OCEANA
"Part of that includes advocating and working with the team and the Oceana office as well our partners and stakeholders, non-governmental as well as governmental in terms our campaigns. One of that is offshore oil, the other is in terms of increasing juvenile fish, as well as banning gill nets. It's a discussion and we are trying to stimulate the conversation, making sure that the information is out there. It's something that does so much for us, like I mention, that we have to be clear as to exactly what are the pros, what are the cons, what are we putting at risks."
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