The National Environmental and Natural Resources Management (NRM) Research Agenda

The ERI has recently completed the first National Environmental and NRM Research Agenda through a multi-consultation process with stakeholders involved in natural resources and protected area management in Belize. The process included one-on-one interviews with government agencies involved in environmental and natural resources management such as the Fisheries and Forest Departments, Department of the Environment, Geology and Petroleum Department and NGO co-managers such as the Southern Environmental Association (SEA), the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE), and Belize Audubon Society, to name a few. These interviews were followed by two stakeholder workshops in March and June 2010 which brought together the Government agencies, NGO co-managers, other environmental NGOs, CBOs and local researchers working in protected areas or natural resource management to prioritize and validate the list of research needs.

This research agenda is an important achievement for Belize, since it is the first time there is a defined and agreed upon set of priority research needs with concrete time lines, a network of partners for implementation and targeted outputs that the research will address. This agenda will provide NRM and protected area managers with the tool to translate the science into direct management outputs, to improve decision making for the use of our natural resources.

The Research Agenda is for a five year period from 2010-2015, at the end of which it will be continuously revised to guide research supporting environmental, natural resources and protected areas management for the next five years and beyond.