Wildlife Rehab Centers Sign M.O.U. with Forest Department

In commemoration of World Wildlife Day, Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, Orlando Habet, has formalized government’s commitment with nine local wildlife rehabilitation centers via a Memorandum of Understanding.  This is in recognition of the conservation community that has been instrumental in conserving, rescuing and rehabilitating, release and re-wilding of Belize’s wildlife species.  News Five spoke with Minister Habet about the latest signing.

Orlando Habet

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“Like the National Biodiversity Office who had been working for sometime in establishing a full-fledged agreement with the co-managers of these protected areas, they finally came up with a full-fledged agreement instead of operating with just one letter of understanding or agreement which was not detailed.  The Forest Department has also been doing a lot of work trying to establish this Memorandum of Understanding with these conservation partners and that‘s very important.  Yes, it has taken some time because some of the wording that was used in the formulation of this sort of framework might not have been what each and everyone wanted to see in there, or at least they wanted some modifications.  And so, it was a back and forth, taking it to the conservation groups and the Forest Department until it was fine-tuned so that it was something that everybody could have agreed upon and it was like that moving forward.  But certainly,  the work of the conservation groups is absolutely important, especially in the area of wildlife, in this case, doing work with rescue, rehabilitation and when these wildlife species are rehabilitated, seeing those that would be fit to be put into a re-wild program and put them back into nature.”