Bio-diversity

Sarteneja has long been recognized as one of the major impacting communities on the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System - World Heritage Site, an area of exceptional biodiversity threatened by overfishing. A number of local, national and international conservation organizations working in Belize, including COMPACT, have focused on mechanisms to provide alternative livelihoods in a community where few have an education beyond primary level, soils are not suited to agriculture, and fishing is a traditional way of life, providing an income for more than 80% of the households. The most successful mechanism to date has been through tour guide training, with sea-based guides being preferentially employed in the reef-based tours of the cruise ship industry. Recent increasing demand for tour guides willing to be paid lower wages, on a per-day basis rather than salaried, however, is making this niche less available to the tour guides based from Sarteneja, with many returning to fishing as a more viable option. With these factors in mind, the tour guides see the need to be able to work closer to home, reducing travel and accommodation costs, and recognize that Sarteneja has the potential to be a tourism destination, providing employment to the tourism sector. They also recognize the need to work with other organizations in the area to protect their resources, and to educate others in Sarteneja of the value of the reef environment beyond that of the rapidly decreasing fin-fish, lobster and conch resources. The STGA s principal aim is to provide an environment in which tour guides can be employed within Sarteneja, as an alternative to the unsustainable fishing practices which currently predominate, and leading towards both the provision of much-needed economic development opportunities for the community, and continued health of the biodiversity of the area. This will be through the promotion of sustainable, environmentally-aware tourism in Sarteneja and support of the tour guides that have taken advantage of past Alternative Livelihood tour guide training opportunities; through capacity building of the STGA committee and members, provision of a support structure for tour guides, and start-up assistance and training in additional guiding skills for the pool of licensed tour guides that currently exists in Sarteneja. The goal of the project is to provide an environment for the development of sustainable, environmentally-aware tourism in Sarteneja, in which Sarteneja can develop as a tourism destination, and in which tour guides can be employed as an alternative to traditional fishing.

Belize