Resource constraints for government agencies at multiple levels is a direct barrier to the effective management of natural resources; this includes monitoring and evaluating programmes, projects and processes as well as enforcing existing conservation legislation and regulations.  To realize our development goals, as prescribed in the Growth and Sustainable Development Strategy and guided by other sectoral policies and strategies, we are required to explore diverse and innovative funding sources, strengthen multi-institutional and stakeholder collaboration and planning and improve understanding and awareness of the importance of addressing socio-economic influences. 

Considering this, the BIOFIN global initiative in collaboration with the “Capacity Building for Strategic Planning and Management Project CD 2,” project proposes a sound methodology and framework based on global criteria for the assessment and management of biodiversity conservation and environmental management to forge and/or realign financing solutions to achieve the goals and targets outlined in national planning documents.  This standardized global methodology and framework consist of the three main components: The Policy and Institutional Review (PIR), the Biodiversity Expenditure Review (BER), and the Financial Need Assessment (FNA).  In tandem, the “Capacity-building for the strategic planning and management of natural resources in Belize (CD2 project’s)” active commitment to sustainable development emphasizes a long-term approach to institutionalizing capacities to meet obligations under the various Multilateral Environmental Agreements through a set of learning-by-doing activities that lay the foundation for effective decision-making and policy-making regarding global environmental benefits.

BIOFIN Belize, through its contextualized methodology and framework has accomplished its first component - the PIR - which has provided significant insight into the current political and institutional framework of Belize as it relates to biodiversity management.  The project has also executed a preliminary Biodiversity Expenditure Review (BER) which assesses the budgets and expenditures of select stakeholders through a prioritization process with the aim of identifying current public and private expenditures on biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. 

These exercises have revealed that monitoring the impacts of national investments creates particular challenges, although deemed necessary, as impact monitoring allows national conservation and development planning partners to:

• Demonstrate effectiveness and in so doing guide future investments strategies
• Learn from experience and develop and apply good practice and approaches that work
• Share experiences to benefit the national community of biodiversity managers
• Carry out evidence-based conservation programming, interventions, policy and advocacy
• Match investments against national goals and targets for sustainable development as are prescribed within the GSDS

The BIOFIN and CD2 project teams hope to harness the combined expertise of academics and conservation practitioners, working across a range of disciplines (social and natural sciences, economics, finances, policy, and planning), to review and identify good practice; leading to the development of a national environmental/biodiversity investment impact tracking tool to be utilized by practitioners in the accentuating of  transparency, accountability and sustainability of investments in Biodiversity and Environmental Management.