“The howler monkeys are everywhere”: How women in Belize are harnessing the power of nature to conserve their community

Women are critical in the fight to protect and restore local ecosystems, but they are often underrepresented in ecosystem restoration and conservation initiatives, despite often being more adversely impacted by climate change and biodiversity loss.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM–GBF) was adopted in December 2022 at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. This historic agreement sets out an ambitious pathway to protect Earth's biodiversity and reverse its decline. Target 2 aims to ensure that 30% of the total area of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and marine and coastal ecosystems are under effective restoration by 2030. This goal must be achieved using a gender-responsive and socially inclusive approach in alignment with the KM–GBF Gender Plan of Action. It’s clear that as the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss intensify, the call for innovative conservation efforts, including from women conservation champions, has never been more urgent.

WCS has taken this clarion call to heart through its work in one of the most biodiverse regions in Central America, the Maya Forest Corridor in Belize. The corridor acts as a critical pathway to the more prominent Selva Maya Forest, which serves as a lifeline for countless species and plays an important role in regional climate regulation. However, the Maya Forest Corridor is under threat; drought, wildfires, and floods are damaging the forest and disrupting wildlife migration patterns, among other issues. 

In response, the IISD and the WCS team are collaborating closely with the Community Baboon Sanctuary Women’s Conservation Group (CBSWCG) in the Belize River Valley to promote the natural recovery of degraded ecosystems through reforestation. This transformative, nature-based approach is being designed through the Climate Adaptation and Protected Areas (CAPA) Initiative, which aims to restore and protect vital ecosystems while improving the resilience of ecosystems and communities to climate change.

We sat down with Jessie Young, the president of the CBSWCG, to better understand the environmental challenges facing their community, how the group is harnessing the power of nature to confront these challenges, and their aspirations for the future of community-based conservation in Belize. 

Tell us about your organization.

The CBSWCG has been operating since 1998. It was founded to continue the work of the male-run Community Baboon Sanctuary which ceased operations 2 years prior. I lobbied local women leaders within nearby communities with the idea of forming a women’s group to take over the management of the Sanctuary and carry on its conservation efforts in the Maya Forest Corridor. The women all agreed but were scared as we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! However, we believed in ourselves and had willpower, and those two things charted the way for us. And here we are today.

The five goals of the CBSWCG are conversation, education, research, tourism, and community development. The group is comprised of a board of directors made up of seven women, as well as five staff members (three women and two men), and three advisory committee members (two women and one man). 

What are some of the key impacts that climate change has had on the local ecosystems and communities where you work?

I would say more frequent and severe droughts, and increasingly, more fires, especially during the dry season. Farmers' crops are getting damaged or destroyed by prolonged droughts, insects and other pests, and farmers increasingly need shade (via cover structures) to protect their crops. Flooding and erosion are becoming more severe and are becoming an issue in new areas within the communities. People are getting discouraged from annual flooding and forest fires and are now leaving the communities to settle in other locations that are not as vulnerable to these threats. We are very concerned and hope that the effects of the climate crisis do not result in famine in our communities.

What nature-based methods are your group applying to help build community resilience to climate change?

We have been engaging with cattle ranchers living in the area to restore riparian forest, encourage using growing fence posts which act as natural barriers to prevent uncontrolled livestock grazing, planting nutritious grasses for livestock, establishing silvo-pastoral systems, and applying agroforestry methods. We also encourage farmers to leave corridors between property boundaries to allow for the free movement of wildlife. Our group works with schools and communities to spread awareness and provide training on responding to climate change concerns, such as forest fires, droughts, and managing agricultural pests.

As a woman-run organization, what achievements are you most proud of?

There is so much I can say, but to have the support of community leaders and landowners is a great achievement. We have received lots of respect from men and community leaders. This was a surprise for us in the beginning. The CBSWCG is a grassroots organization founded by women with minimal educational backgrounds. We are also the longest-standing organization promoting conservation in this area. Due to our work, the howler monkey [baboon] population has gone from 800, when we started, to 6,000. The howler monkeys are everywhere—this is a huge accomplishment.

How do you feel your organization is perceived by others within the community?

Our group is seen as a sign of hope, or maybe I should say we are seen as agents of change and the backbone of our communities. We are the movers and shakers, the planners and the implementers of our community development in every aspect. We believe that the conservation progress we have made over the years is the reason why we have been given the respect and support from the communities, and other organizations. This motivates us and drives us to do more.

What role do you feel women and underrepresented groups play in community-based conservation?

As women members of CBSWCG, we know our needs and the needs of our families, and we try to use everything sustainably. When we come home from work, we still have to cook and take care of the kids. Women take the same management of the home and apply this into the conservation field. We know how important it is to conserve.

We understand the challenges, opportunities, weaknesses, strengths, goals, and direction we want for ourselves, our families and most of all, our communities. This is what drives us each day, even when we get overwhelmed and feel like quitting. Reflecting on why we are here keeps us motivated and strong. We are each other’s strength, we are all equal, none with more power than the other and equally supportive of each other.

How has your organization been involved in the CAPA project?

We have been involved with the CAPA project through nature-based restoration and livelihoods activities that we are promoting here in our communities. We have been able to expand our agroforestry and backyard gardening project with technical support from WCS and funding from CAPA. We also recently received a CAPA Innovation Fund grant that will allow us to address flooding and erosion issues in affected communities through riparian planting efforts. This will assist the CBSWCG in furthering our reach to address the needs of our people.

What impacts have you seen to date as a result of your work with the CAPA project?

The CAPA project is helping us to address the needs of farmers by establishing cover structures to shield crops from pests and protect them from drought conditions. Some farmers are already selling a few crops, which improves their economic situation and enables them to provide for their families. The Belize Rural High School, which is located in one of the communities that we serve, received a cover structure, and the students will be learning to germinate vegetable seeds and seedlings for backyard gardening. We also established a nursery with a cover structure within the organization’s compound that will provide fruit trees for agroforestry, as well as trees and plants for riparian restoration and forest restoration in degraded areas to farmers, cattle ranchers, and community members.

What longer-term impacts do you hope to see as a result of your organization’s work?

Our main goal is to have healthy forests and healthy people by 2030.  This requires conserving and restoring critical ecosystems, as well as improving the livelihoods of our people and families within our communities to become self-sustaining by eating healthy, local organic vegetables that they have grown themselves. We hope that through our home gardens and agroforestry initiatives, that there will be less cutting of land for “slash and burn agriculture” (also known as milpa), as is the tradition in the Belize River Valley. We hope that these efforts will help us to promote a healthy river valley environment by 2030.

About the CAPA Initiative

The CAPA Initiative is a 3-year project funded by Global Affairs Canada that aims to use nature-based solutions to strengthen climate resilience and protect biodiversity in and around protected areas in the Kavango-Zambezi and Greater Virunga landscapes in sub-Saharan Africa, Belize, and Fiji. Learn more about the program here.