Just a 15-minute flight from Belize City, diving the colourful reefs of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve is like swimming into an award-winning underwater nature documentary. Sea turtles and spotted eagle rays glide peacefully by as rainbow parrotfish eat algae from coral branches that are in good health. A three-foot nurse shark explores the area, while two male coral crabs square off like gladiators at the base of a little canyon called Hol Chan, which means "little channel" in Mayan.
Although Hol Chan is one of Belize's largest tourist sites and the star of the country's many marine wonders, it is actually only a small portion of the Western Hemisphere's longest barrier reef. The 240-mile coastline of Belize, which is dotted with hundreds of offshore atolls and cayes, is home to more than 500 different species.West Indian manatees and American crocodiles are protected by the mangrove forests, lagoons, and estuaries that line the coastline.
The barrier reef is sensitive to the effects of climate change, and the majority of it is also under increased pressure from overfishing and neighbouring development. Despite having part of it listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, the entire reef is still at risk. Belize's governmental debt was $1.5 billion by 2020, which was more than the nation's GDP and made it challenging to set aside funds for environmental protection.
Things only got worse after COVID-19. Since 2019, Hol Chan has seen a sharp decline in visitors. The number of rangers has decreased from 15 to 11 because admission fees pay the majority of park operations (at one point last year there were only five).
Previous to the epidemic, rangers were on duty 24 hours a day to protect the park's aquatic treasures; today, they are only on duty from 5 am to 8 pm.
Belize required a solution that would protect its natural resources and revitalise the sectors of the economy that rely on them. The government looked to a business deal that The Nature Conservancy had pioneered in the Indian Ocean a few years earlier. It would restructure Belize's debt, freeing up tens of millions of dollars to protect its coastal and offshore resources—a transformative prospect for a nation where nearly 50% of the population depends on the ocean for food and employment. If that ground-breaking marine conservation model could find acceptance on Belize's Caribbean shores.
The Republic of Seychelles, a remote island nation 1,000 miles off the east coast of Africa, was the recipient of The Nature Conservancy's first debt-for-ocean transaction, which was completed in 2016. To assist Seychelles in securing long-term funding for marine conservation, The Conservancy developed a financial framework that would subsequently serve as the foundation of its Blue Bonds for Ocean Conservation programme. The Conservancy assisted in negotiating a cheaper financing rate for a portion of the country's debt and assisted in locating international donations to finance the deal.
In return, the nation agreed to safeguard at least 30% of its marine territory and allocate some of the money it saves each year from paying down its debt to conservation management.On a smaller scale, it's comparable to a bank agreeing to refinance a home provided the owner pledges to use the savings for upgrades.
