- Description
The main problem definition of this study is the need to generate community-based management of coastal resources for the benefit of the small man and woman in the South Coast of Belize in opposition to the large scale and multinationally controlled shrimp aquaculture and banana agro-processing that have taken control of the area within the past two decades. So far the avenues for small-scale development which unlike large-scale investment, filter throughout the community, are artisanal fishery and tourism using the bountiful maritime, coastal, and riverine resources. By focusing on community-based coastal resource management in the past and present, the aim of the study is to show that there had been such a tradition in the past and that its review can help in re-introducing it at this time. In uncovering its data, the study used oral history, ethnography, and varied efforts of a collaborating NGO Toledo Institute for Development and the Environment (TIDE) in natural sciences data collection and community mobilization. Briefly the approach is that with negligible use of history, aesthetics, and cosmology, the community should work together to help diversify the national economy, conserve fishery, and maintain welcoming social structures for tourists visiting the marine protected areas.
