Dated October 13, 2026, a new marine conservation policy in Belize has sparked widespread discontent among small-scale fishing communities, who say they were entirely shut out of the drafting and approval process for the national Sustainable Oceans Plan. For the working fishers who rely on the country’s coastal and ocean waters for their livelihoods, the debate surrounding this plan is far more than a disagreement over regulatory fine print such as mandatory vessel monitoring systems. It cuts to a core issue of representation: whether communities most affected by ocean policy get a seat at the table when decisions are made that will reshape their daily work and long-term economic security.
Jorge Aldana, who leads the San Pedro Fisherfolk Association, argues that fishers across Belize have been forced time and again to adopt new rules and regulations without any meaningful opportunity to contribute feedback or shape the policies that govern their work. He points directly to the passage of the Sustainable Oceans Plan as the clearest recent example of this systemic exclusion. According to Aldana, government regulators explicitly promised fishing community representatives during a public validation workshop that they would share any revised drafts of the plan with stakeholders after the cabinet made changes, and would hold further discussions before the legislation was sent to parliament for a vote. Those promises were never kept.
“We only learned about the first, second, and final reading of the bill when it was already moving through the legislative process,” Aldana explained in an interview. “The final opportunity for fishers to review the plan and comment on the last draft never materialized for our community. This is the second time in just one week we have been cut out of the process like this – it cannot continue.”
Government officials have defended the rushed timeline for the plan’s passage, arguing that the legislation was time-sensitive to meet the requirements of the country’s Blue Bond financing agreement. The Sustainable Oceans Plan, which covers all of Belize’s internal waters, territorial sea, and exclusive economic zone, is a core requirement for unlocking the international blue bond funding earmarked for marine conservation and sustainable ocean development.
But Aldana pushes back against that justification, noting that government leaders were aware of the binding legislative deadline for the Blue Bond far in advance. “It is fine for projects to have tight timelines, but when a policy will shape the lives of fishing families for 10, 20, even 40 years down the line, nothing is more time-sensitive than coming to consult the people who will live with the consequences,” he said. “If they knew they had a deadline to meet, they should have started the consultation process far earlier to do the right thing by our community.”
This report is a transcript of an evening television broadcast, with all Kriol-language statements transcribed using a standardized spelling system.