APAMO Team takes on Climate Change
September 4, 2019
APAMO continues to collaborate with partner organizations (WWF & CZMAI) and stakeholders in order to achieve project goals, which includes public awareness and engagement. The objective of these 2 activities was to engage with the locals in each community and to sensitize them to the project while having discussions about the impacts of climate change.
The objective of the project is to reach out to the locals working at the Lobster Fest and those attending the event and sensitize them on the impacts of climate change through an informational leaflet and discussion. Specifically, to obtain the targeted local community feedback on climate change including adaptation ideas or strategies. The regional target is to reach 33,000 households, with the national target including the coastal communities of Punta Gorda, Placencia, Caye Caulker, San Pedro and Corozal and stakeholders of Port Honduras Marine Reserve, Laughing Bird Caye Marine Reserve, Caye Caulker Marine Reserve and Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, coastal planning regions, sectoral tourism, and Fisheries. The Government of Belize agencies and department, Agriculture, and other private sector stakeholders are being targeted.
The method used was interpersonal face-to face engagement that was done with the development of an informational leaflet for distribution that contains general information about climate change including the importance and vulnerability of Belize’s coastal zone and preliminary adaptation strategies. With the leaflet, the APAMO staff held short semi-structured interviews (roughly 10 minutes per person).
The audience targeted were community locals who were attending the events (Placencia & Caye Caulker Lobster Fest), with the objective to socialize the project from early during the day to those who were setting up their business stalls or opening for business.
Overall for both events 66 adults were directly engaged, 59% were male while the remaining 41% were female. Considering the lessons learned in Placencia, the Caye Caulker (the bigger event) event yielded better results with more local persons being reached hence establishing a critical core stakeholder contact list for that area.
This project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.