During the development of the project concept it was discovered that recent and relevant information on the impacts of wild fires on biodiversity and health and livelihoods of local and indigenous communities were scarce or lacking. TIDE plans to make the reports of this project publicly available through sharing online information, printed reports and videos. With proper documentation of lessons and reporting, this project can easily be scaled up to a much-needed national level project. As with past GEF SGP projects, an end-of-project assessment is planned where feedback from the beneficiaries and those involved are obtained and lessons are documented and shared with the various stakeholders. This will enable access to the methodology used, effectiveness of the approach and limitations of the project so that others can improve the process. TIDE shares information using a variety of ways to ensure maximum 7 reach. These include online through websites, social media platforms, local and national radio and television, printing and distribution of information, and congregated meetings. TIDE plans to continue using these mediums to disseminate information on this project.

Over the years, TIDE has had tremendous award winning successes in engaging various community groups, including Indigenous Peoples, children, youth, women and other local communities in all levels of its work considering gender equality and social inclusion

TIDE has recently developed its gender policy in an effort to ensure social equity and inclusion in its programs. With respect to this project, TIDE will target both men and women for inclusion in fire management. Fire management is seen as a male?s role and in the past have included only males. Through interacting with local communities, it was discovered that women have a unique role to play in fire management. There are cases where escaped fires threatened properties and livestock during the period of time when men are out farming leaving only women at home. Having women trained on how to address escaped wild fires could help to protect properties, lives, and livelihoods. In 2017, TIDE was approached by women from Trio and Bladen communities requesting to be trained in fire management for this reason and a total of 15 women were successfully trained in basic fire management. To our knowledge, this is the first and only set of women in local communities that are trained in fire management. TIDE plans to further engage these and other women in fire management through initiating a program for Women in Natural Resources Management (WONARM). Though this initiative will only be started during this project, the vision is that it will be one of TIDE?s many flagship and innovative programs that will transform the way natural resources are managed through social innovation and inclusion. Through the awareness campaign, the targeted audience is extremely wide and expected to reach a wide cross section of the communities including men, women, youth, children including persons with disabilities. Random surveys during the project evaluation session will be encouraged to assess the extent of this reach within these various social groups. Finally, TIDE plans to have at least 2 representatives from indigenous communities sit on the Southern Belize Fire Working Group that is active and established by TIDE to manage fires in the entire southern portion of Belize. The working group currently includes NGO, private sector and government representatives, and through this project, indigenous peoples will be included and represented for the first time.

The Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE), is a legally registered NGO in Belize established in 1997 and focuses on protected areas management. TIDE co-manages the Port Honduras Marine Reserve along with the Belize Fisheries Department, the Payne?s Creek National Park along with the Belize Forest Department and owns and manages over 20,000 acres of private protected tropical forests. TIDE?s main programs in these protected areas are; enforcement of national protected areas laws and regulations, education and outreach, community development, research and monitoring and financial sustainability. With an annual budget of BZ $2.3 million and a staff of 30 fulltime personnel, TIDE has been implementing biodiversity and natural resource-based management projects for more than 20 years. TIDE is governed by a 7-member board of directors that grants the power of attorney to the Executive Director, provides oversight, and establishes the vision of the organization -Toledo?s healthy ecosystems support biodiversity, communities and sustainable development. The executive director delegates responsibilities to various program managers, the development director, an accountant and a TIDE Tours manager. The program managers supervisors the park rangers and biologists.

This project has provided several outputs such as the formalized fire management training course and key messaging materials that facilitate expansion and replication in the 15 existing communities or new communities. The importance of fire management is becoming increasingly important on a national scale, so the outputs of this project can also be used to expand or replicate using fire management as a tool in protected area management. Entities such as the Belize Zoo and the Belize Maya Forest Trust are already using fire management as a tool.