From August 7 to 9, a team from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mesoamerica, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Belize Development Finance Corporation (DFC) traveled to Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve, and the Belizean communities of Dangriga and Hopkins to investigate and co-design a loan product tailored to artisanal fishers.
The intention of the trip was to structure a pilot project to test the connection between loans tailored to small-scale artisanal fishers active within and around marine protected areas (MPA) and the reduction of a discrete set of threats to the marine environment, and ultimately contributing to Belize’s plans for Resilient Bold Belize (Belize’s coastal and marine Project Finance for Permanence (PFP)).
This co-design challenge seeks to answer the question: How might fishers be incentivized to comply with regulations and fish more sustainably?
The trip was guided by a methodological order where different types of information emerged to be used as inputs for the loan product. The methodology included individual and group interviews with fishers which gave a chance to learn about fishers’ unique perspectives and dynamics that can be leveraged for the loan product or that could derail portfolio performance.
WWF Mesoamerica´s team shared the findings from the joint fisher loan co-design mission on Thursday, August 17, 2023, at the Belize Biltmore Plaza Hotel, in Belize City.
The intention of the trip was to structure a pilot project to test the connection between loans tailored to small-scale artisanal fishers active within and around marine protected areas (MPA) and the reduction of a discrete set of threats to the marine environment, and ultimately contributing to Belize’s plans for Resilient Bold Belize (Belize’s coastal and marine Project Finance for Permanence (PFP)).
This co-design challenge seeks to answer the question: How might fishers be incentivized to comply with regulations and fish more sustainably?
The trip was guided by a methodological order where different types of information emerged to be used as inputs for the loan product. The methodology included individual and group interviews with fishers which gave a chance to learn about fishers’ unique perspectives and dynamics that can be leveraged for the loan product or that could derail portfolio performance.
WWF Mesoamerica´s team shared the findings from the joint fisher loan co-design mission on Thursday, August 17, 2023, at the Belize Biltmore Plaza Hotel, in Belize City.