Pact Donates over 4 Million Dollars to Climate Resilience Projects  

This afternoon, the Protected Areas Conservation Trust made a generous donation of over four million dollars to fund projects that will boost climate resilience in Belize. These grants are set to help communities tackle climate change issues like flooding and wildfires. News Five’s Britney Gordon was at the ceremony to get the scoop on how this money will be used and the positive impact it will have on the lives of Belizeans. Here’s her report.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

In 2024, wildfires ravaged hundreds of acres of forest and nearby areas, impacting thousands of Belizeans. These fires are a harsh reminder of the devastating effects of climate change. The Protected Areas Conservation Trust is dedicated to fighting and reducing these impacts. Today, PACT stepped up by donating over four million dollars to climate resilience projects across the country.

 

Abil Castaneda, Executive Director, PACT

“PACT is currently the only institution in Belize that are credited to both the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund, which are climate finance mechanisms that provide financing support to countries to build resilience against the challenges and impacts of climate change. So this particular award ceremony was is directly related to the Adaptation Fund. There was a particular mechanism that’s called EDA and Enhance Direct  Actions that that are geared towards specifically to fund programs that target community resilience. So it’s more for the local communities to be able to address specific vulnerabilities that they are facing..”

 

The ten-million-dollar program kicked off on February twelfth, 2024. Now, celebrating its first anniversary, four recipients have committed to using the funds to improve their communities. PACT also plans to award grants to another four organizations in the coming months.

 

Abil Castaneda

“Today we highlighted four partners. One was the Belmopan City Council. And they are, I’m sure my colleague from Belmopan, here could appreciate the vulnerabilities of Ten Cents Creek. And the idea is that this project will assist in improving the drainage. Infrastructure within the Ten Cents Creek area, and so we hope that will assist them upon to be able to better address flood issues into the future. We also have a partnership with ICA, the Inter American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture. They received a grant to provide additional support and lending to improve livelihood initiatives within communities across the country. And so that’s not specific to one community that would be funding that would be later sublet to additional communities within the country.”

 

The Forest Department also received a donation as it is one of the key regulatory departments within the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Climate Change. That project will focus on addressing wildfires in Belize. Sarteneja Village is the final grant recipient of the day. Village Chairman, Paulino Guerrero, expressed his gratitude to PACT for the generous donation of four hundred sixty-four thousand dollars.

 

Paulino Guerrero, Chairman, Sarteneja Village

“I feel happy because first time we have this break in our village. Because every year in the dry season we have problem with fire. And now I think that we will have the solution of that.”

 

Britney Gordon

“What do you plan to invest the money in specifically?”

 

Paulino Guerrero

“We have the repair the building  and some machines for  engines for the fire.”

 

Castaneda reassures everyone that PACT keeps a close eye on how the funds are used, making sure they go towards the intended projects and objectives.

 

Abil Castaneda

“To be honest with you, to be able to access these funds, PACT as an organization has had to invest a lot in specific policies and procedures and systems that allow us to monitor and evaluate what are the impacts of these. And so we have installed within PACT a project management unit that’s part of our climate finance unit specific to this program. But also as we saw today, there are other elements that are in place. So there is a technical expert team that is there to provide guidance and also a project steering committee that will be providing overall oversight on the program. We do have various mechanisms to be able to ensure that we are meeting our targets. We have about three years or so to finalize these investments. And we need to make sure that we meet all those objectives before the time runs out.”

 

Guerrero also thanked PACT for their continuous support of the village, noting that PACT also funded its water system.

 

Paulino Guerrero

“I think the people of my village will be happy because every year, then it’s the ones that suffer the bad moments.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.