TIDE Native Plant Nursery Inauguration
TIDE had the pleasure of welcoming His Excellency Dr. Hardy Boeckle, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Guatemala and Belize and his wife to Belize to see firsthand the work we are doing in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve (PHMR) and at TIDE Private Protected Lands (TPPL).
Ursula Padilla, Regional Director of IUCN-ORMACC, Melinka Najera, Coordinator of the Biodiversity Program: Linking the Central American Landscape, and Yvette Alonzo, IUCN – Territorial Technical Advisor of the Biodiversity Program: Linking the Central American Landscape joined His Excellency for a quick tour of PHMR followed by a visit to TIDE’s Native Plant Nursery at Big Falls for its inauguration.
The Linking the Central American Landscape program is being implemented by IUCN across seven countries in the region and is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany, through the KfW Development Bank.
One component of the project is restoring 70 hectares of degraded forest identified within the TPPL. TIDE’s Native Plant Nursery was built primarily to handle thousands of seedlings needed for the restoration.TIDE’s Native Plant Nursery was built primarily to handle thousands of seedlings needed for the restoration component.
Saul Cruz, Director of the National Biodiversity Office (NBIO), Ministry of Sustainable Development, joined the event and helped cut the ribbon praising TIDE for how exactly the project and it’s implementation fits NBIO’s vision of community supported restoration efforts.
Students and teachers from Big Falls Primary School also attended the inauguration and we would like to thank them for their time and participation in the day.
His Excellency acknowledged the need for youths to become passionate about conservation and resource protection.
We’re proud to share how this project is strengthening local governance, protecting biodiversity, and benefiting communities while linking landscape and seascape.
The Ambassador’s visit reinforces the importance of collaborative conservation efforts.