VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSJ #2800/01 3551633
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211633Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE
TO RUEHBE/AMEMBASSY BELMOPAN 0007
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6883
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0788
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 3843
RUEHBH/AMEMBASSY NASSAU 0247
RUEHWN/AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN 0743
RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE 0555
RUEHGE/AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN 0418
RUEHKG/AMEMBASSY KINGSTON 0764
RUEHPO/AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO 0327
RUEHSP/AMEMBASSY PORT OF SPAIN 0453
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA 0029

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 002800 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OES/PCI (LSPERLING)AND WHA/CEN (JMACK) 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO AID 
AID FOR SCOTT LAMPMAN 
SANTO DOMINGO FOR MICHAEL DONALD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV ECON PGOV EAGR SOCI BH
SUBJECT:  BELIZE: TROPICAL FOREST CONSERVATION ACT OVERSIGHT BOARD 
MEETING 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY.  REO attended the November 2, 2006 meeting of the 
Belize Tropical Forest Conservation Act Oversight Committee in 
remote Punta Gorda.  The meeting provided an opportunity to review 
2006 NGO reports, which focused on community outreach and 
enforcement activities, and approve 2007 workplans.  While the PACT 
Foundation reported agreement in principle on guidelines for 
managing Foundation monies intended for a small grants program, 
subsequent private conversations suggested that differences among 
Foundation Board members may result in tasking another entity to 
manage Foundation funds.  Oversight Committee members recommended to 
REO that a second debt for nature swap be considered.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  REO attended the November 2 Board meeting of the Belize Tropical 
Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) Oversight Committee meeting (the 
Committee) in Punta Gorda, Belize at Toledo Institute for 
Development and Environment (TIDE) headquarters.  Members of the 
Committee included Artemio Osorio (Ministry of Finance);  Wilbur 
Sabido (Ministry of Natural Resources); Marnix Perez (Protected 
Areas Conservation Trust-PACT);  Valdemar Andrade (PACT Foundation - 
the Foundation); Anna Hoare (Belize Audubon Society-BAS);  Edilberto 
Romero (Programme for Belize-PfB);  Alex Martinez (Nature 
Conservancy); Wil Maheia (Toledo Institute for Development and 
Environment -TIDE); and REO on behalf of U.S. Embassy Belize.  Also 
in attendance were Dominique Lizama (BAS), Herbert Haylock (PfB); 
and Angelica Chavarria (TIDE). 
 
PATIENCE WEARS THIN OVER FOUNDATION NEGOTIATIONS 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  Andrade briefed the Committee on the status of the Foundation 
established by the U.S.-Belize TFCA agreement to support small 
grants to the wider Belize environmental NGO community.  Divisions 
on the Foundation Board (the Board) between the NGOs (BAS, PfB, and 
TIDE) and government (PACT) prevented both agreement on procedures 
for managing Foundation funds and the scheduled October call for 
projects.  (These divisions prompted NGO to insist that the 
Foundation hired its own lawyer to avoid relying on PACT counsel.) 
PACT and NGO Board members also differed over the base for 
calculating PACT's proposed 15 percent fee.  PACT wished the base to 
be Foundation income earned (NGOs argued that PACT would have no 
incentive to actually disburse funds) while NGOs wished to apply the 
percentage on actual monies disbursed (which placed the risk of 
delay in decision-making on PACT).  Andrade reported that the 
November 2 Foundation Board meeting reached an agreement in 
principle on the issue, but NGOs reserved judgement until they could 
scrutinize the fine print. 
 
¶4.  Both NGOs and PACT privately raised the possibility that the 
Foundation administrator (currently PACT) might be replaced if 
agreement could not be reached.  The three NGOs argued that any one 
of them can manage Foundation funds as effectively as PACT.  Should 
the fund migrate to another institution, PACT would prefer to remove 
"PACT" from the Foundation name in order to establish a new vehicle 
for fundraising. 
 
HIGHLIGHTS OF NGO REPORTS 
------------------------- 
 
¶5.  All reports emphasized improvement to park infrastructure like 
new guardhouses, renovated trails and renovated quarters. Each also 
highlighted community outreach, ranging from educational 
presentations to children's activities.  The three NGOs noted that 
their freedom to cover park staff salaries gave them the security to 
leverage funds for more innovative projects than would otherwise be 
the case. 
 
¶6.  BELIZE AUDUBON SOCIETY (BAS) 
 
Seventy percent of Land Management funds were used to cover the 
salaries of ten field staff to manage 9 protected areas.  The 
balance was used for administrative support and as partial payment 
for its Executive Director, accountant and Park Manager.  Highlights 
included: 
 
--  Outreach to surrounding landowners to share information about 
 
illegal loggers and hunters transiting property. 
--  Cooperation with Armenia Mayan Women's Group to build a 
community gift shop, conduct birding walks, and hold a clean-up 
campaign. 
--  Mapped Saint Herman's Blue Hole and Guanacaste National Parks 
and conducted overflights and joint patrols with police and defense 
forces. 
 
¶7.  TOLEDO INSTITUTE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT (TIDE) 
 
TIDE's 2007 goals largely mirrored its 2006 activities.  Of 
particular interest were its outreach efforts on behalf of the 
endangered Hicattee turtle and the second season of its innovative 
Freshwater Cup, in which local teams are as competitive in putting 
forward environmental projects as they are on the soccer field. 
Monies were spent on TIDE Private Lands Initiative enhancement, 
pushing its land acquisitions to 23,000 hectares, and on hiring 
rangers, a Science Director and a forest management specialist; and 
conducting river and ground patrols of private lands, including 
alternating patrols with three other NGOs of the Bladen Management 
Area.  TFCA Support helped make possible: 
 
-- development of a medicinal garden, nurturing of 800 mahogany 
seedlings and the designation of two areas for scientific 
monitoring; 
-- 21 patrols with police and Forest Department officials that 
destroyed three gill nets and posted eleven signs on fishing and 
hunting regulations; 
-- participation in forestry/land conservation conferences and 
training opportunities on fire management, medical emergencies, and 
boat and engine maintenance. 
 
¶8.  PROGRAMME FOR BELIZE (PfB) 
 
PfB manages the Rio Bravo Conservation Area, which constitutes 4 
percent of the country.  In FY 2006, 2/3 of PfB funds covered 
salaries of park personnel; nearly 1/3 was used to cover 
administrative expenses; and 4 percent supported communication 
system maintenance, vehicle repair and aerial reconnaissance.  TFCA 
funds leveraged a Wallace Foundation donation to support the study 
of the endangered Yellow Hooded Parrot.  Rangers reported an 
increase in poaching and illegal fishing, to which they responded 
with increased patrols; detected and destroyed 5 marijuana fields; 
and halted two illegal logging operations that resulted in charges 
against 6 persons and 2 convictions. 
 
RAISING A SECOND DEBT SWAP WITH TREASURY 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶9.  Regardless of differences over the Foundation, Oversight 
Committee members were enthusiastic about a second debt swap, which 
Osorio valued at USD 3.5 million.  While attending the November 7-9 
Environmental Fund Network for Latin America and the Caribbean (Red 
de Fondos Ambientales de Latinoamerica y el Caribe -REDLAC), Andrade 
and REO raised the recommendation with Department of Treasury 
official Katie Berg.  Berg took the request under consideration, 
noted the requirements to be met, and observed that the delay in 
implementing the Foundation did not strengthen the case for a second 
swap.  She emphasized that more detailed reporting from NGOs on the 
fruits of their expenditures would be useful, and inquired how 
administrative fees authorized by the agreement were used. 
 
PUNTA GORDA:  NOT ON THE WAY FROM ANYWHERE TO ANYWHERE ELSE 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  TIDE Director Wil Meheia confirmed that he planned to leave 
TIDE in December to run for the national legislature.  Frustrated 
with a government unresponsive to Toledo District needs, Meheia is 
founding a new political party that will combat corruption and 
promote local NGO takes on environmental issues. 
 
¶11.  Belize's last Caribbean cultural outpost before the Mayan 
culturescape straddling the Guatemalan border, Punta Gorda's few 
thousands are a mix of Creole (African-European), Garifuna 
(Carib-African), Mestizo, and Mayan peoples, with a small but 
 
economically important population of East Indians, Chinese, and 
Mennonites.  Relatively untouched by beach or cruise ship-driven 
development, a new road and six-hour drive from the capital has not 
overcome Punta Gordans' self-perception as out of sight and out of 
mind to Belmopan.  Enough adventure tourists and aficionados of 
puntarock (modernized Garifuna rhythms) reach Punta Gorda to justify 
adding 2 or even 3 stories to the family homes-cum-inns lining the 
shore.  Outside the town, bed and breakfasts, farms and fishing 
lodges seek to bolster eco-tourism in Toledo District.  Their 
expatriate owners are not a new phenomenon, as the graves of 
Confederate refugees testify. 
 
¶12.  Toledo District hosts many NGOs and sustainable development 
efforts, of which TIDE is the most successful.  The Toledo 
Association for Tourism and Empowerment (TASTE), a consortium of 
tourist businesses in the district, administers idyllic Sopadilla 
Cays.  Various Mayan community organizations support (with Peace 
Corps help) the marketing of wood crafts and other products, offer 
Mayan village homestays, and administer community lands, including 
the dramatic Rio Blanco falls.  British organic chocolate maker 
Black and Green, purveyors of the orange-accented "Maya Gold" dark 
chocolate bars, worked with the local cacao growers to replant with 
native cacao - genetic tests, it claimed, show that it is the 
original source stock.  Local boosters are planning a 2007 cacao 
festival in the nearby, evocative Mayan ruins of Lubaantun, where, 
some claim, the cacao tree was first cultivated. 
 
LANGDALE