It’s been several weeks of continuous heat and widespread flames ripping through the country. Thousands of acres of land have been affected, as well as hundreds of families. With a dry season so uncharacteristically long, environmentalists are calling this one of the most severe heatwaves the country has ever experienced. With fires so intense, it took a collaborative effort between the government, N.G.Os, and private companies to battle the flames. Today, a joint press conference was held to provide details of how the fires grew out of control. The stakeholders also provided an assessment of the damage caused. Here’s Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator with those figures.
Daniel Mendez
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator
“We noted that continuous high temperatures and low rainfall across the country increase the likelihood of fires across the country. In the Toledo district in particular, we saw there were localized fires which developed near the San Pedro Columbia area, and these increased significantly during the period of May fourteenth to seventeenth. There were also significant increases in central and southern Toledo throughout that period. On the board, on the screen, you will see the temperatures for the period from the first to the twenty-seventh, and in particular, I want to highlight to you that this the peaks the peak temperatures. It’s actually when we saw most of the fires starting to develop. You will see that there were high, record highs of one hundred seven degrees in the central farm area. And this of course, was a similar trend across the country. That in combination with the low rainfall, really created that condition. So our damage assessments have been ongoing because you understand that this is a situation that is, has not stopped. There are continuing fires across the country and we have been responding to these issues for the past three weeks. We also have people who responded to fires as of last night. And so it’s an ongoing operation. But what we have been able to gather so far in the Toledo district, there are upwards of four hundred families which have been impacted by this fire. This is a spread across a space of twenty-eight communities across all across the district. And up to now our assessments continue, but we noted that there are a there is a minimum of six thousand acres of farmland which have been damaged. There has been also great loss to damage to the environment, and there is a lot of loss to livelihood. We also note that ten houses have been destroyed in two communities. There were eight in the Grand Creek Village and two in San Pedro, Columbia. In the Mountain Pine Ridge, we also noted that approximately thirty-two thousand acres were affected in that area. However, we have not yet been able to begin the assessment of the Cayo district to determine the totals the total impact so far. We will be doing that in the next few days.”
Across the country, wildfires have been wreaking havoc across thousands of acres of farmland and forests, leading to a loss of millions of dollars in agriculture. Another significant loss is in the loss to the carbon credit market. Carbon credits are a mechanism used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by creating a market in which companies or governments compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere. For years, Belize has been a trailblazer in the carbon offset market, with the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area being one of the first carbon offset projects in the world. However, due to the recent fires, the protected area, among others, has suffered a significant loss. Here’s News Five’s Britney Gordon with more details.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Thousands of acres of land have been lost to the fires that tore across the country over the past several weeks. As the characteristically long dry season ends and the rainy season begins, the government and environmental organizations are assessing the damage, which they estimate is in the millions. Jose Perez, Executive Director of the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations provided some insight into what those figures look like.
Jose Perez
Jose Perez, Executive Director, APAMO
“The destruction of these pristine forests when you enter a protected area, what you will find is pristine, broadleaf trees, vegetation. And that is what has been burning in mostly Elijio Panti in the Rio Bravo conservation and management area and some protected areas down in the south up to now without the figures. Of those in the south, we estimate that it’s over ten thousand acres of pristine forests that had been burnt and are still burning. In Tapir, if you try to put a figure to the environmental damage and ecological damage at four hundred acres that were burnt earlier this week, it was just emitted about two million dollars. So do the math, for over ten thousand acres.”
One area that has been heavily affected is the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area in northwestern Belize. Edilberto Romero, Executive Director of Programme for Belize, which manages the area, told us that while the team has been dealing with fires for several years, it has gotten progressively harder to manage.
Edilberto Romero
Edilberto Romero, Executive Director, Program for Belize
“We’ve been dealing with fires ever since we started. We have seen a shift in 2011 after Hurricane Richard, where the fires have just grown exponentially. Summarily, we used to be able to manage fires with sixteen thousand Belize dollars. Now it’s costing us seventy, eighty thousand Belize dollars to manage fires. And this is because you need to have your fire lines. You need to plan before the fire season. You need to do education. You need to meet with the communities, sensitize the communities, sensitize the fires. You need to compartmentalize your area. And that’s a lot of heavy equipment work. And then when you have to be actively monitoring using different ways of monitoring.”
Since this climate shift in 2011, fires are more frequent and becoming more difficult for the team to manage. The Rio Bravo Area has lost over three thousand acres from fires just this year alone.
Edilberto Romero
“We’ve lost approximately three thousand acres this year in eight fires. It’s a lot, but it’s eight fires. This is since the season in February. Since the fire season up to last weekend where we detected a fire in Friday and by Sunday morning that had been outed. But if we would not have been prepared, one fire would have been two thousand, three thousand acres if we didn’t do the work the timely response and put the resources in it.”
The vast wilderness in Orange Walk District was among the first of seven protected areas in the world to join the carbon offset market, making Belize a world leader in the movement. However, with these losses, the reserve has lost millions of dollars in potential revenue, as the area affected was at the final stages of preparation before it was to be traded for carbon credits. Carbon credits are used by cooperations and government entities to allow them to emit a set amount of carbon into the atmosphere. By purchasing a credit, the emission is offset by the preservation of a forest reserve.
Edilberto Romero
“You cannot generalize because every type of forest has different amount of carbon that they store. But if you use an average figure, it’s like one hundred fifty, two hundred tons of carbon per acre that you may be able to claim from carbon credits. Having one ton of carbon as one credit. Those credit have different prices depending on the market, you sell it the lowest. For us, It has not been lower than ten dollars but if you put that lowest figure you’re talking about millions of dollars that’s been lost. In our 2011 fire, we were talking one point six million tons of co2 equivalent and if you put that at ten dollars then you’re talking about sixteen million dollars.”
Romero attributes the difficulty with managing the fires to the low funding NGOs receive and the hoops that they must jump through to receive assistance.
Edilberto Romero
“The problem with fires is that NGOs, I’m talking about protected areas here, NGOs do not have money to deal with those fires. And for you to control the fire, you have to have quick response. You have personnel, but that’s not sufficient for large fires. You need heavy equipment and other things. And if you don’t have the monies for that, then you try to figure out where to get it. And by the time you get confirmation, two days have passed, three days, the fire is now huge. It becomes more, more expensive.”
He recommends that a contingency plan be set in place so that protected areas like the Rio Bravo can have the capacity to counteract and respond to fires before it gets too late, and millions of dollars in carbon credit are reduced to ash.
Edilberto Romero
“My recommendation is at a country level, we, for Rio Bravo, we have contingency of ten thousand to quickly respond as soon as possible. But for the country, all protected areas now should have a fire contingency fund and their plan. For the country, we need to look at Belize as the entire country under fire threat and we need to put a contingency fund that is there ready to respond that you don’t have to get no kind of clearance because if you take one day to get approval, that’s a lot. If you take three days, that’s too much, much less a week and then it becomes more risky and it becomes problematic to the health of the people and everything that comes along. And then you have more expense having to support the community’s damage, the farmer’s damage and everything.”
The damage caused by the many fires across the country has been detrimental to the livelihood and wellbeing of hundreds of families. These fires are due, in part, to the prolonged dry season that came with record-high temperatures. However, according to environmentalists, several of these fires were manmade by farmers using the slash-and-burn method. These fires were then exacerbated by the heat and escaped containment. Although the rainy season is now upon us, fires are still burning in some areas. NEMO Minister Andre Perez says despite this, the farmers will not be issued a stop order.
Andre Perez
Andre Perez, Minister of Disaster Risk Management
“Not too sure if you want to answer a question on why we would want to put a stop order. It’s something that we have to look at the bigger picture. It’s impossible to say a stop order. We’re talking about a north where cane farmers are working. That’s where they traditionally have been doing it, to burn their canes so that it can be taken off to the factories. And the traditional slash and burn done so, that is done. We it’s the time around that where the farmers prepare their lands in preparation for the rains that are coming. No, for looking for the future, certainly we have to look at other alternatives in terms of education. And not only that, but providing alternatives by way of the Agriculture Department on how to best deal with preparing the land. I don’t see any way how putting a stop part is going to make any difference.”
In the south, wildfires have also devastated huge tracts of land in a protected area managed by the Ya’axche Conservation Trust. The organization has been busy over the past few weeks fighting these fires that have destroyed crops and displaced wildlife in the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve.
Christina Garcia
Christina Garcia, Exec. Dir., Ya’axche Conservation Trust
“We’ve been battling with fire in the Maya Golden Landscape for the past month. First fire that affected the preserve, the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve, our rangers and fire management crew have been battling fires in the preserve that have destroyed a little over two thousand acres of forest within the Golden Stream Corridor Preserve. So we’ve been battling in terms of controlling that fire so that the fire does not reach the field station, an investment that we have here for over twenty-five years. Apart from the fire in these protected areas, we’ve also been assisting communities in controlling fires within their farming landscape. So a lot of the work that has been carried out over the past weeks is with the beneficiaries that Ya’axche works with, controlling fires and ensuring that those fires do not completely destroy all the farmscapes and the different agro forestry systems that we have created jointly with the farmers over the years, although that has been very difficult because as you can see from images that the news has reported on, there has been a lot of damages in these communities, especially the farms, especially the destruction of cacao and different fruit trees, timber saplings and this is actually food that the farmers depend on.”
According to Estevan Asi, the increased temperatures and changes in climate, are the worst he has ever seen in all his years in agriculture. Asi also works with the Ya’axche Conservation Trust.
Estevan Asi Jr
Estevan Asi Jr., Ya’axche Conservation Trust
“We responded to communities in Trio, San Miguel, Silver Creek, Columbia. We had community leaders approaching us because we do have some capacity in fire management, so we were able to also send out a team out there. We had adequate resources such as the bladder bag, the flappers that helped us in controlling these fires. Of course, everything was togetherness, we worked collectively to ensure that at the end of the day we controlled most of the fires that were spreading. So, for this year, the fire was really devastating. I’ve worked in agriculture for some time but I can say, because of the increased temperatures and changes in climactic conditions, this year was really devastating. We even have a number of farmers within our farmer network that have lost their farms. So we’re talking about cacao, corn, beans and other diversified crops within their farms. Also, you had some farmers that lost their animals, small animals and a few homes were burnt.”
The fire crisis relief efforts have been a partnership between government agencies, private companies and N.G.O.s. According to environmentalists, without the effort of these teams, containing these fires would have been impossible. Today, an update was provided on the situation and details were shared on how the fire relief missions were conducted. Earlier today, they told us that this experience has opened their eyes to the fact that Belize’s Disaster Risk Management Plan needs to be updated.
Daniel Mendez
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator
“We have already started the research to do this. We know that we are now facing multi hazard. And so actually, our plan is not just is a multi-hazard plan. We know that there are principles that must be applied to every hazard. We also know that there are things that we are we may not even be have heard of, such as the fires of this magnitude. So we are a learning organization. We are going to continue to do the research and to continue to update this plan as necessary. It is important because as we move into the next phase, We’re looking at flooding. We’re looking at other things which need that kind of attention as well. So it’s clear that we, our plans need to always be updated continuously. In disaster management, it, we never stay still. We never write a plan and leave it there forever. It must constantly be updated and it must constantly be changed to address the needs of the times.”
Andre Perez
Andre Perez, Minister of Disaster Risk Management
“If I may add, if I may add on this N.E.C. is that I think our emergency response has been test tested to the max right now, what we can consider that as the most, but I’m certainly I think we from a government standpoint, there are lessons to be learned and we take it seriously, very seriously in how to improve. So other than that, as I said earlier, is having a master plan, but also it is evolving. It is ever changing. It’s not something that you have a master plan there that’s twenty years. It’s a new era. We’re dealing with climate change is real. Nobody’s expected these kind of thing with forest fires. So now certainly it’s lessons learned and we are taking very seriously.”
The turmeric root has been touted as a medicinal plant that boosts the immune system and wards off minor infections, liver ailments, and healing wounds. But this wonder plant from the ginger family is also ground into a powder and bottled as a tasty seasoning in the East Indian culture. In today’s edition of Belize on Reel, News Five’s Marion Ali and George Tillett travelled to Toledo where turmeric is harvested and used as medicine and seasoning. Here’s that report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Derrick Guy makes a living off the turmeric root. He uses a portion of his farmland at Yemeri Grove to plant and harvest a few thousand pounds each year. Some of it he sells to a factory several miles away, and the rest he grinds into what is called yellow ginger. This is a powder that can be added to almost any pot – a meal that is then called takari.
Derrick Guy
Derrick Guy, Turmeric Farmer, Toledo
“We usually harvest it in dry weather and when we harvest it, we usually put back the seed back under the earth. But we usually harvest it on full moon that ih last long and ih nuh ketch weevil when you process it, noh. We wash it like two, three times, we boil it, we put it out in the sun let it dry. No rain enough to catch it because it can spoil. You got to crack it first with the mill and from there you grind it, then sieve it, and grind it again till it comes to come to lone powder.”
Guy says there are other methods of harvesting and processing turmeric, but the end product doesn’t last long.
Sherene Garay-Usher owns and manages Garay’s Restaurant in Punta Gorda. Her establishment caters largely to customers who want takari food, which is any meal that is cooked with yellow ginger. She agrees that the way turmeric is processed makes all the difference. Even though she processes the root for her own uses, when she needs to buy, she says she prefers Guy’s method of processing over the others.
Sherene Garay-Usher
Sherene Garay-Usher, Owner and Manager, Garay’s Restaurant
“If yoh goh buy it da the stores the yellow ginger taste different. Some of them don’t even have color. Soh ih yellow in the bottle, but when you cook it, the stuff doesn’t come out yellow.”
Marion Ali
“Why is that?”
Sherene Garay-Usher
“Because they’re not dry, good. The processing is different.”
Marion Ali
“And now, you have a famous kitchen in PG, and everybody knows this kitchen or know about your cooking. And that taste of that yellow ginger. It’s traditional to you, it’s unique to you, and you’re saying it’s because of the way it’s processed?”
Sherene Garay-Usher
“Yes, it’s because of the way it’s processed, and for me, when I buy yellow ginger, most of the time I try to buy from Mr. Derrick because they do it almost the way how we grow up di do it, the traditional way.”
Garay-Usher attests that this yellow ginger powder can be used in almost any pot.
Sherene Garay-Usher
“The split peas yoh just sprinkle a little bit in it when it start boil up and thing. But, when I cook the cohune cabbage, I fry up my yellow ginger before I put in the cohune. The pork, I have to fry the yellow ginger a little bit and that is because the yellow ginger nuh processed the way how I would do it for myself.”
Marion Ali
“I see, yes. If you had done it for yourself, how would you have done it?”
Sherene Garay-Usher
“If I had done it for myself, I would have made my paste and have it ready for when I ready to cook. I could just season the meat with it.”
Garay’s Kitchen is so popular for its unique takari dishes that Garay-Usher says she gets orders not only from the Toledo District but sometimes from as far away as Belize City, Belmopan and Corozal.
Sherene Garay-Usher
“Most people da PG basically follow the East Indian or the Creole when it comes to the food. On a daily basis most people look forward to eating something takari. People would da just call or just message and say, please send this or please send that, and they just pay online and then I just put it on the plane. Most of it da the Takari or if I cook cohune cabbage, like today I had an order to send by the plane.”
While turmeric is ground into yellow ginger and takari dishes are popular East Indian cuisines, it is also used for medicinal purposes. Guy said he uses it as a booster.
Derrick Guy
“They have it in capsule too for medicine and when I go on YouTube, they say it has 54 different benefits.”
Marion Ali
“Do you use it as medicine?”
Derrick Guy
“Of course but I cook with it a lot and I also boil it and drink it for tea.”
Marion Ali
“What does it do?”
Derrick Guy
“They say it helps the immune system, noh. It fights against different sickness and things. Ih good for joint pain too also.”
The internet suggests that turmeric has several health benefits for which the product can be used as well. Marion Ali for News Five.
The Government of Belize earmarked fifteen million dollars to pump into the citrus industry through the Development Finance Corporation. But citrus industry stakeholders did not take advantage of the funding. Minister Jose Mai says confidence is low among investors in the industry due to citrus greening and low yields. But he also noted that the tide seems to be turning, as the industry tests a variety of citrus trees that are proving to be more resilient to H.L.B., or citrus greening. Furthermore, global citrus prices are at a record high.
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“We allocated ten million dollars, fifteen million, but if it was a hundred million they still wouldn’t take the money. The farmers didn’t go for the money. One, i think the price has to be good. And there has to be some kind of confidence in investing. You ask me right now, you want to invest more in sugar cane? I would tell you no period. You ask me to invest in citrus and I would tell you no until I see how the new varieties are doing and how the industry is managed and structured. The industry has gone through a lot in the past. From 2008 we had the disease. There were no major attention given to the industry until when we won and we said let us go and inject fifteen million dollars and nobody went for it. It means that they are saying hold on I am not sure if this thing is being managed in the right way. Now, we are seeing that new varieties are looking good and the prices are going up. So there are only two things that motivate, one thing that motivate a producer it has to be profit led, not money making, because you may be making a lot of money, but not profit. Up to now, four hundred to five hundred thousand boxes have been delivered which is better than last year. Two is that we have exported forty containers of fresh fruit to the CARICOM. And the third is that the new varieties which we believed has a level of tolerance of resistance to the disease are performing well today. So that is a silver lining.”
And as citrus stakeholders are working to rebuild a once thriving industry, a government delegation from Peten, Guatemala is in Belize hoping to learn more about the sector. The Government of Guatemala is seeking technical assistance from Belize to establish its own citrus industry. The delegation is in the country for two days and they will get to see firsthand how the sector functions. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
The government of Guatemala is leaning on the Government of Belize for technical assistance to establish a citrus industry in the neighboring country. A delegation led by Guatemala’s Vice-Minister of Peten Affairs, Elmer Salazar, is in Belize on a two-day working visit to better understand Belize’s citrus industry.
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“The Guatemalans don’t have a citrus industry. They want to start and they have asked us to support them in giving them technical assistance, technical advise on how to begin. If you are aware, Belize was one of the only countries that had a very good system in place where you had certified nurseries. So we had imported clean material from sources in the U.S and we grew that in a very controlled environment and those trees is what we used as mother trees to try to curve the incidents of citrus greening.”
Unfortunately, in 2008 citrus greening emerged as a new threat to Belize’s citrus industry. At the time, the industry was generating just over sixty-seven million dollars in revenue per annum, with over five hundred active growers. On average, seven million boxes of citrus were being produced annually.
Jose Abelardo Mai
“In 2008 when we had citrus greening being declared all across the country, we could not control it. There was not enough interest being placed into the industry at the time. So, we picked up the industry I think in the lowest spot in its history. But I must report to you that up to now, CPBL has received three hundred and fifty thousand to four hundred and fifty-thousand boxes this year, which is much better compared to last year. That is a silver lining. And to compliment that, I will say to you that we have exported between forty to fifty containers of fresh fruits and that is very good news to report.”
The visit will include a tour of citrus groves at Caves Branch on the Hummingbird Highway, as well as a tour of the Citrus Growers Association facilities and the CPBL’s factory and nursery. We heard from Vice-minister Elmer Salazar.
Elmer Salazar
Elmer Salazar, Vice-Minister, Peten Affairs
“Well, on this occasion, we came with a delegation from the Department of Peten, specifically from the Ministry of Agriculture, mainly visiting the facilities, which is run by Minister José Abelardo, who with his team we have approached. We, as the new government that we started this year by Dr. Bernardo Arevalo, we want to have this approach with this country, Belize, which is a very beautiful country. I identify a lot with it because I was born in Melchor de Mencos and I was appointed by the President as the Deputy Minister of Specific Affairs of the Department of Peten in the field of agriculture and livestock. So for me, personally, it is a privilege to be here. And likewise, my team that accompanies me has the intention of getting to know the experiences that are being done here at the Ministry of Agriculture in Belize.”
Peten is described as the largest producer of grains in Guatemala. But as climate change threatens the livelihood of grain farmers in that department, they are seeking to invest in alternative industries, such as citrus.
Jose Abelardo Mai
“They have to begin from scratch. We have a history. We have very good experience in doing this. We have some of the best people trained in the industry and they are coming to learn from us. This is the first bilateral meeting we are having with this new government. I think Peten is one of the few departments that has a vice minister or a minister of agriculture for the area, because they have a big area and this is the first time we are meeting him in Belize. But as I explained to them, we share many similarities with Peten, same soil type, same type of geography, same type of problems with climate change effects, we are having the same and we share similar types of products and cultures. Many people in Peten study in Belize and many Belizeans marry Guatemalans. So, there is much to share with them. We share a lot and there is much more to share.”
Paul Lopez
“And when it comes to workers though, we know that many of these workers comes from Guatemala, is there a consideration there?”
Jose Abelardo Mai
“I think the entire region has a labor shortage. I was in costa Rica and Honduras, all the Nicaraguan that use to do the manual labor are in the U.S. So, Mexico has labor shortage, as a matter of fact the sugar crop is not going to end because they are unable to harvest all the cane. It is a concern of course, but nevertheless we have to work to see how best we can improve the lives of the farmers in the country.”
We have been reporting extensively on the increased cost of a sixteen-ounce loaf of bread. The price adjustment was placed in the Gazette on May fourth, and it came into effect early this week. So why was there no public announcement about the adjustment? And is this the last we will see of a price increase on bread for now? We asked the Minister of Agriculture.
Jose Abelardo Mai
Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture
“I believed that the Ministry had made an announcement. I was really made to understand that it was gazette I think. But I believe that yes I should have said the price if bread has moved from so to so, you are right in that. We erred in that statement. Look, that matter we took a look at a number of times and many of the ministers were worried, everybody is worried about high cost, even me. But when the bread makers showed is their cost, mein how would you survive at this price? Now they wanted seventy-five cents and we said that cannot be because we were subsidizing twenty-five cents. So we said, we are prepared to go ten cents above that. We went to thirty-five cents. But they didn’t implement it for a while because they were waiting for us to bend and say we will give you seventy cents but that could not be the agreement because Cabinet has said listen, we are not prepared to go more than thirty-five cents. That is where we are with that.”
Reporter
“Now these bakers are still staying, and justifiably, you know the numbers, that they want more.”
Jose Abelardo Mai
“That is not something that will happen right now. I think that all around you see prices are going up and it has to be managed somewhere that we are putting policies in place for the basket of goods, and we try to police it. It is not an easy thing to control global inflation, especially when it is imported. I don’t even think I want to take that to Cabinet because I will be gunned down before I get to the doors of Cabinet. It will not happen at all. It will not happen.”
