Peter Kohler | Belize’s Marine Litter Action Plan: A Caribbean First

Marine litter poses a global threat to the health of our oceans, but disproportionately affects small coastal nations such as Belize through impacts on natural habitats, economies, and livelihoods. Through the Commonwealth Litter Programme, Peter Kohler from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science and his colleagues have detailed the steps that were taken to support Belize in adopting the Caribbean’s first Marine Litter Action Plan in August 2019.

Impact of Marine Litter on Small Coastal Nations

The UN Environment Programme defines marine litter as ‘any persistent, manufactured, or processed solid material discarded, disposed of or abandoned in the marine or coastal environment‘. Marine litter can originate from land-based activities such as accidental discharges, poor industry practices, and even littering or dumping. The remaining sources of marine litter are ocean-based and include the fishing, tourism, and shipping industries. Once in the ocean, marine litter can have damaging and long-lasting effects on the health of our oceans, marine life, and the economies of the nations it washes up on.

Although marine litter is a problem on a global scale, Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as the Caribbean islands, are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of increasing volumes of marine litter. This is because SIDS are often heavily reliant on the oceans to support livelihoods and their economies (including fisheries and tourism), and resource-constrained states can find it difficult to tackle marine litter effectively. Belize is one such country. Located in Central America with a 240-mile-long Caribbean Sea coastline, Belize is technically not an island. However, given its remoteness and heavy reliance on the ocean, it is classified as a small island developing state.

Developing and implementing national action plans is one way in which governments, organisations, and communities of SIDS can work collectively to tackle the issue of marine litter. Work led by Belizeans, with Maxine Monsanto (at the Department of the Environment, Belize) playing a key role and supported by Peter Kohler from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), has achieved exactly this. Through environmental monitoring and a series of stakeholder workshops and consultations, Belize developed a Marine Litter Action Plan (MLAP), which was adopted by the Belizean Cabinet in August 2019: Belize – Blue, Clean, Resilient and Strong.

Challenges for Action Plan Development

Several factors make developing a national MLAP for SIDS challenging. These include stakeholder engagement, resource mobilisation, communication and outreach, governance, infrastructure, scientific expertise, and funding.

When developing a national MLAP, it is critical to engage with a broad range of stakeholders, including government, businesses, and the public. Often, SIDS do not have the infrastructure to simultaneously tackle recycling, poor waste collection, and dumping.

The Development Process

Belize’s MLAP was developed by the Government of Belize and Belize’s Department of the Environment with the support of Mr Kohler and his colleagues at Cefas. A four-stage process was established, leading to the development of the MLAP. These stages were: (1) scoping and stakeholder mapping, (2) research and development, (3) consultation and formulation, and (4) review and adoption.

Stage 1 (scoping and stakeholder mapping) involved mapping existing efforts, identifying and speaking to key stakeholders about plans to refine and agree processes, and critically, ensuring that members from the broadest possible selection of society could be engaged.

Stage 2 (research and development) was aimed at developing Belize’s scientific capabilities and addressing the gap in marine litter data through community workshops and outreach with other key sectors. Rapid assessment surveys were conducted to identify the sources and composition of marine litter, and reports were obtained from subcontractors. At the same time, stakeholders were simultaneously trained in data collection, developing continuous monitoring practices. Current and ongoing work includes working with the Department of Environment to complete the National Marine Litter Monitoring Plan to create a more complete dataset to support policy decisions.

In Stage 3, all the evidence and information gathered from Stage 2 were presented to key technical staff for stakeholders across sectors in workshops. The team ensured as open a space as possible to allow Belizeans to drive solutions based on their understanding of constraints and resources. Policy briefs were key documents that allowed all participants (present and not) and the decision-makers in the national workshops to understand what was discussed and the focus of actions. Actions agreed upon during targeted workshops were taken to a national policy workshop that involved decision-makers, executives, and senior managers from all sectors, prioritising the actions and developing a series of objectives and actions. Stage 3 resulted in the first draft of Belize’s MLAP.

Finally, Stage 4 confirmed and adopted Belize’s MLAP. An agreement between all stakeholders on the recommendations and actions laid out in the MLAP was required before being submitted to the Government of Belize for approval and adoption. Critical to this were consultations with sectors of the plan. Once adopted (in August 2019), the implementation of the MLAP’s actions could begin.

What Factors Led to Success?

Throughout the process of developing Belize’s MLAP, Mr Kohler and his colleagues identified several critical factors that led to its successful development. Of primary importance was working closely with local partners to gain key insights.

Next, was early stakeholder engagement. A small population means a heavy reliance on a small number of stakeholders. In addition, the interconnected nature of stakeholders means misinformation can spread quickly and needs to be effectively managed.

Mr Kohler and colleagues also pointed to the importance of engaging with stakeholders to promote active participation and shared ownership of the project. Third, and from a more methodological perspective, gathering data through rapid survey assessments was vital for informing and training stakeholders, developing actions, and maintaining a process of future monitoring.

Finally, project success was attributed to the identification of important stakeholders with influence – be that positive or negative – and engaging them early and throughout the process. Empowering Belizeans to develop actions based on evidence that may affect their own future was clearly critical to this.

Lessons Learned in Belize

Several important lessons were learned during the development of Belize’s MLAP that relate to SIDS more generally. Notably, the formal adoption of an action plan by the government presents a single strategy that can coordinate stakeholder actions through its implementation. In addition, providing timely updates and opportunities for stakeholder feedback serves to maintain stakeholder participation and ownership, and informed decisions as to how this will proceed. As such, it is important to ensure that any plan is collaborative and representative of all stakeholders. To this end, safe environments should be created throughout plan development where stakeholders feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. On a practical level, resource capacity (for example, personnel, technical ability, funding, and timeframe) is instrumental to developing and prioritising actions and the implementation of an action plan.

Onwards and Upwards

Tackling the issue of marine litter is difficult, especially for SIDS like Belize. The work conducted by Mr Kohler and his colleagues led to Belize becoming one of the first Caribbean nations to successfully develop and adopt an MLAP – and achieve this in just four months. By learning from the experiences in Belize, other SIDS in the Caribbean and further afield have a firm basis from which to develop their own MLAPs in the fight against marine litter. This work also has important for the UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution.