How much mercury is released in Belize?
The Basel Convention Regional Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean (BCRC-Caribbean), in collaboration with the Department of Environment in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment and Sustainable Development, held a National Inception Workshop for the project, “Development of Minamata Initial Assessment in the Caribbean (Belize)” at the Best Western Plus on January 23, 2019. There, participants, which included representatives from several key stakeholders, were familiarized with the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the Minamata Initial Assessment (MIA) and organized meetings and site visits with consultants to facilitate data collection.
Participants were from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment and Sustainable Development through the Department of Environment; the Ministry for Health; the Ministry of Investment and Trade; the Ministry of the Attorney General, Ministry of Natural Resources and Immigration, Ministry of Economic Development and Petroleum, Ministry of Human Development and the medical, dental, energy, waste, environment and education public and private sectors. They heard opening remarks from Edgar Ek, Deputy Chief Environmental Officer of the Department of Environment and presentations from project staff from the BCRC-Caribbean including Marco Manzanilla, National Project Coordinator for the inventory; Dr. David Evers, International Technical Expert from the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI); and Judy Daniel, Legal Consultant from Environmental Advisors Inc.
