Published by Nicola Foster - On 15 February 2010

On Monday February 8th, I travelled to Monkey River Village, along with Seleem Chan, Alastair Daly, Stephene Supaul, and Danny Hun to host a community meeting. Over 30 people from the community turned out to listen to a presentation about the monitoring results for the Port Honduras Marine Reserve (PHMR) and details of how we are revising the PHMR management plan. During the meeting, I presented the results of the biological monitoring program collected within PHMR over the last 6 years, and we discussed the causes and impacts of some of these results. The community members were very receptive and had some very helpful suggestions and inputs regarding how we should manage the reserve. The most interesting discussions centered on the conch and lobster populations which have shown minimal recovery within PHMR over the last 6 years even within the no-take (conservation) zones. Many of the community members said that they thought the no-take zones were too small to protect and enhance the conch and lobster populations.

Suggestions were made by community members to increase the size of the no-take zones, and possibly the entire reserve, to improve their effectiveness.

In addition, a request was made by the community for TIDE to return and meet with them specifically regarding extensions of the no-take zones and the reserve. They also made the following recommendations regarding how to improve our outreach and education in the village of Monkey River: distributing booklets which detail the marine laws of Belize and how these laws apply to PHMR, sending more newsletters to the village, and holding meetings in the evenings and on weekdays so more people can attend. We are now working on improving our outreach in Monkey River and providing the community with the information, assistance, and documents they have requested. Another meeting in Monkey River is scheduled for the 19th February 2010.