Skip to playerSkip to main contentSkip to footer
Switch TV
  • 5 days ago
Watching as your home, favourite football field and even your deceased loved ones have been washing out to sea is the reality facing the residents of Monkey River. What is next? When “as a community we aren’t ready to move” as Mario Muschamp, the President of the Monkey River Watershed Association, assures. They are fighting back by putting “Monkey River back on the map” Audra Castellanos, the local schoolteacher and Watershed treasurer, states.

Category

📚
Learning
Transcript
00:00This is a home for us. This is where we have been burned, we have grown up. There's no place like
00:13this for us. As a community we are not ready to move. Moncraver has always been a fishing community.
00:21I started out as a fisherman and that was a joyful time.
00:36Moncraver is in a very dangerous place right now. I mean it's on a point where
00:44people are moving away because of this erosion.
00:46We were living out there where the water is now.
00:55Got the house washed away from there.
01:05My name is Mario Muschamp. I'm a resident of the community of Moncra River.
01:11We started seeing the issues with the erosion on the coastline.
01:17What hurts me the most about this whole situation is, even after we lost several, you know,
01:23pieces of properties, we lost the whole football field, was the loss of our burial ground.
01:33My grandma and my grandfather are now washed out in the sea. You know their graves are gone. That really hurts.
01:40We have been doing our best to try and keep what we have. I don't want to see any more graves go to the sea,
01:50as a lot of my families are still there. My sister, aunts and uncles, cousins, good friends,
01:58still there, currently threatened by the sea.
02:09My mom is, well, she's the reason I decided to become a teacher.
02:14Are you ready for school?
02:17Well, everybody around here, you know, we're related, family members, so it's really personal.
02:23So that is why I chose, well, I decided to get on the watershed and see what I could do to assist.
02:28The Bunk River Watershed Association was mainly formed to address what we're seeing with the erosion on the coastline.
02:38As a community, what we started seeing was changes on the river.
02:41And we didn't see the kind of sand that used to come out before to replenish what is lost naturally.
03:01We have no beach now, but it was, it was really nice having a beach where you can
03:11walk around and enjoy the view of the sun rising.
03:31My call is to try and see what I can do to improve, to better manage then what we have,
03:36because it's easier to manage what you have than to restore what you lost.
03:40So I had to get involved with the Watershed Association.
03:46In 2017, we were able to implement our first project,
03:49the pilot for the stabilization coastline using the geotubes.
03:53The watershed data geotube project where they installed some geotubes in front of the village.
04:10Basically, that was like a stabilization method to assist with some of the villagers who were at risk of losing their homes.
04:23The GEF Small Grants Program provides financial and technical resources to civil society organizations
04:32to implement community-driven action for global impact.
04:40I was able to nurture further relationships with the residents of Monka River, including understanding their life,
04:49their concerns, their concerns with the erosion, the loss of homes, the loss of their livelihoods, the loss of biodiversity.
04:57The degradation of watershed in general is at an alarming rate being degraded, and for me that is extremely concerning.
05:08What I see with the erosion, I would hope that they can stabilize it, you know, put something out
05:16down, rocks, sand, to stabilize the beach. Once it's stabilized, then they can do other projects to help that.
05:26Waves and the sand was coming inside the downstairs and run through all the way to the back.
05:35So what happened, the guys took some rocks that the government gave us, some boulders and small ones,
05:42and they put them just in wheelbarrow and boat and throw them in front to help to build
05:47back a little bit of the sand so we know that the boulders would work.
05:50Monka River Village is one of those coastal communities that we prioritize. A coastal fishing
06:01community located on the southern eastern part of Belize, a small Creole community living in harmony
06:08with nature. Monka River is not responsible for the climate crisis, yet they are the ones that are
06:18suffering the greatest loss and damage. What we need is climate justice.
06:25I want to get Monka River back on the map.
06:29Monka River exists. It's a beautiful place.
06:34The natural resources here for us to use, not abuse and misuse, because without them we can't exist.
06:41Monka River exists. If we can address what we're seeing, Monka River can be here for another 100 years.
07:11It's coming from the house a six o'clock on this one.
07:23It helps us to see the true value of life in India and it moves to both of us in etc.
07:28If we have that тво 아디 and respect,
07:30then Jesus takes a few days later, God bless you all the best trueimer thanks