The Be­lize Fund for a Sus­tain­able Fu­ture is pro­vid­ing a grant of BDZ$250,000 (One Be­lize dol­lar =US$0.49 cents) to the Be­lize Ho­tel As­so­ci­a­tion (BHA) and the Be­lize Tourism and In­dus­tries As­so­ci­a­tion (BTIA) to help the coun­try deal with the im­pact of the sar­gas­sum along the coast­lines.

“This is re­al­ly a na­tion­al chal­lenge or a na­tion­al emer­gency that need­ed to be ad­dressed and the board en­tire board agreed that it is im­por­tant. And we had re­cent­ly fi­nalised our emer­gency re­sponse grants win­dow,” said Le­an­dra Cho-Rick­etts, the ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the Be­lize Fund.

She said a de­ci­sion was tak­en for the Fund to at en­gag­ing with the blue econ­o­my and the Min­istry of Tourism “to see how they can help sup­port and pro­vide some re­lief to this is­sue. “And it is, as we’ve all heard, it’s here for as long as we are fac­ing these chal­lenges glob­al­ly. And so the Fund be­yond this sup­port will we’ll be look­ing at mech­a­nisms to con­tin­ue to pro­vide some sup­port,” she added.