Project Detail

Contributing to Community Seascape Conservation by Engaging Stakeholders of Ambergris Caye, Belize City and Caye Caulker in Training to Promote Awareness of, Monitor and Protect Manatees

This project aims to reduce threats to manatees, an IUCN red-listed vulnerable species in the busiest intersection of manatee and human traffic encounters in the country of Belize. The Drowned Cayes area of Belize ? of which the Sanctuary lies at its heart - is strategic for both cit izens and manatees. From the site there is easy access to the fresh water of the navigable Belize River mouth and the sea meeting and supporting a growing urban City above and a significant concentration of use by manatees below. With harbor activit y rapidly increasing, it is too often with deadly consequences to the manatee that boats connect violently with manatees at the surface of the water precisely at the moments when manatees must surface to breathe result ing in injury or death. Combined with the cayes being top favorites for developers and the million or so visitors to Belize, continued action by SCWS in this highly trafficked area would be critical. Friends of Swallow
Caye proposes, therefore, to once again unite its efforts with Government of Belize, stakeholders and UNDP GEF SGP to implement some tangible solutions.
? Objectives
1. From the outset of this project, marine protected areas management effect iveness at Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary will be improving incrementally according to national requirements specifically for monitoring, public awareness, and sustainability.
2. By the end of this project the community stakeholders from Ambergris Caye, Belize City and Caye Caulker who participated in the manatee awareness, monitoring and protection training to reduce threats to manatees will observe regulations within Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary. 3. Collaboration with regulatory agencies and community manatee protection groups will increase manatee protection on the seascape level from Reef to River (11 miles Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary, across the Belize Harbor and up Haulover Creek and Belize Old River) through improved monitoring and enforcement applying the SMART System and utilizing instant social media.

Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Friends of Swallow Caye

Country:

Belize

Area Of Work:

Biodiversity
CapDev

Operational Phase:

OP6 - Y3 (Jul17 - Jun 18)

Grant Amount:

US$ 25,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 2,501.62

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 27,266.73

Project Number:

BZE/OAK-PHASEII/2017/16

Start Date:

1/2018

End Date:

6/2020

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

As part of the project FOSC will be collaborating with G. Smith and Nauil Gomez at CZM in organizing the first Specialized Manatee Tour Guide Training Course. This tour guide training will be conducted in partnership with the Belize Tourism Board to validate the training. This training will provide another facet to tour guiding skills and tour packages to improve livelihoods.

Replication of project activities

Manatees remain an important species to sustainable development in Belize; however, with the continued investment in tourism as an economic driver, the threat to this species from maritime activities can easily escalate, thus the need remains for ongoing awareness. FOSC has demonstrated various innovative approach to sensitizing resource users and to securing their cooperation. At the same time, the evaluation found that additional work remains ? working with the Port Authority to strengthen the categories of captain license, strengthening the various Tour Guide Associations so that they can in turn provide ongoing professional development to their membership and improving the financial sustainability of FOSC as an important organization in natural resources management.

Capacity - Building Component

The grantee partner has the technical capacity to manage and implement a project. Friends of Swallow Caye have managed and implemented project with grant funds successfully in the past. To reduce risks of project failure due to group dynamics and management, a Project Steering Committee will be setup and a mentor will be identified to assist the organization with the management and implementation of this project.

Project sustainability

The results of the evaluation exercise clearly indicated that the funding by the GEF SGP was pivotal to the project being undertaken. All project participants indicated that they now better understand and appreciate the importance of manatees and measures they can take to safeguard the species. They see themselves abiding by the recommendations given even after the project is completed as such is essential to the sustainability of their livelihood. The evaluation also revealed that some companies operating marine vessels are instituting measures beyond the awareness created by the project. Institutionally, the external financial audits have placed FOSC on a much better standing as a partner in protected areas management and as such, it is likely that the organization and its work will be more attractive to funders. At the same time, it should be noted that key aspects of the project that were intended to drive increased revenue generation and in turn financial sustainability did not get off the ground fully, thus financial sustainability of FOSC is lower than what could have been otherwise possible

Gender Focus

The role of both men and women are key to the protection of the wild life sanctuary. Both men and women are treated equally and are given the same opportunities. Both men and women will be involved in the management and implementation of this project.

Policy Impact

This project aims to improve effectiveness of the regulations when passing by the Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

This project has activities setup in place to improve awareness of and threats to Manatees. This project targets stakeholders from Ambergris Caye, Belize City and Caye Caulker who are the primary stakeholders of the Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

Training participants will be provided with information sheets and the Information Officer and Center at SCWS will be operating for ongoing information sharing on site. To a large extent, the website and social media will be utilized for publicizing the ongoing activities of the project. Press releases and required reports will be generated and made available. Additionally, status reports will be shared either on Facebook or on the association?s website. Describe how you plan to capture, share and disseminate the knowledge, lessons learned and good practices gained through the implementation of the project. Examples of such KM approaches are: brochures, posters, newsletters, photo stories, video documentaries and press releases produced during project implementation. Relevant information will be lodged with the APAMO Secretariat for further dissemination through the network's social media and for enhanced marketing through the umbrella organization's upcoming Business Center. The APAMO Business Center will be staffed by an in-house Communications and Marketing Officer whose job will be to support all CBOs in implementing their business plans. Relevant information will be shared with the Belize Tourism Board for SCWS to be included in their sustainable tourism marketing.

Notable Community Participation

Youths from Caye Caulker, Belize City, and San Pedro are key stakeholders and will be engaged in this project. Youths are being involved in the Activities of this project but will also form part and will have a voice at the Project Steering Committee. Youths input and involvement in this project are very important in the management of Swallow Caye Wildlife Sanctuary and in the Projection of Manatees.

Project Results

Project results ranged from individual outputs (lower level) to the project goal (highest level). This sub-section now describes the extent to which the project delivered on the planned results, i.e. effectiveness.
Project Goal
The goal of the project was contribution to seascape and biodiversity conservation in the national protected areas system. The agreed indicator of success would be return SCWS to acceptable PA management standards protecting manatees in natural habitat and such would be verified by the infrastructure, personnel, manatees, habitat, etc. Notwithstanding the fact that no concrete targets to be reached by project completion were established (see project design), the project resulted in the management standards of the SCWS being significantly improved.
Purpose/Outcome The purpose of the project, or its expected outcome, was sensitizing stakeholders and communities for the purpose of manatee population maintenance or increase with the objectively variable indicator being stakeholder and community feedback; and decrease in manatee mortality from boat collisions. Project reports do not provide concrete information on the change in mortality from boat collision that can be attributed to the project interventions, thus it is not possible to draw conclusion pertaining to this indicator. Moreover, whilst there were some increase in incidences involving manatees across the country, it is likely that such was due to increased maritime traffic. At the same time, all 100% of stakeholders engaged during the evaluation exercise indicated that they are now more cognizant of the need to take additional precaution to safeguard manatees whilst traversing the area.
Outputs
At the level of outputs, the project had a total of fourteen outputs. Table 1 below reflects the degree to which the project delivered on each output.

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