07/12/05

Community Choices

Community Choices

Village residents and community leaders are faced with several important development decisions in the future, and they require new “tools” in order to weigh the positive and negative aspects of each potential development strategy.   This part of the paper includes suggestions for how village decision-makers can approach the current range of issues facing the community—and we base these recommendations on what we learned during our interviews and conversations with local residents.

There is a serious lack of data on the characteristics of the individuals, households and families living in both Punta Negra and Monkey River Village. An ongoing study by an intern at TIDE could help fill this gap in our understanding, but for now, we lack some important social and economic information on the community. Hopefully, this preliminary social assessment and the ecological assessment (by the University of Belize team) will help clarify the development priorities of the local people. This section of the report is intended to serve as a guide to what the community would like to see happen. It can be used as a way of considering possible ways of meeting their goals, and as mediation between the goals that are disagreed upon. This section will not deal with all of the issues that were mentioned during our time in Monkey River, but rather will highlight the more important ones that the community members identified. Instead, we will discuss several possible changes to be made in Monkey River, and mention what we perceive to be the positive and negative parts of each one. Based on the results of the field research, these appear to be several key community needs in Monkey River Village, including:  1) full-time electrical power; 2) improved access to Independence;  3) strengthening local community organizations, such as women and youth groups.

Electrical Power

The town has expressed that 24 hour hook-up to an electrical power source in as their main concern for development (See Appendix  H,I.) Electricity is sought to develop the tourist trade, by attracting more tourists to stay overnight in the village, and to allow children access to computers and the internet for learning purposes. Although the government has came years ago and built poles and wires, it has yet to hook the town up to the electricity source.

1. The town is hooked up to the electrical grid.

Positives: The town will be more attractive as a destination for wealthier tourists willing to spend more money and will not have to depend only on “backpacker” tourism anymore. They will also be able to educate and train local youth and develop new trades to employ young people.

Negatives: The town may lose some of its rustic appeal and community identity as a result.

2. The town gets the generator repaired.

Negatives: The town must now find a way to get money for fuel to keep the generator going.

Noise from the generator will dampen some of the tourism looking to find serenity.

3. The town gets solar panels to generate electricity.

Negatives: Solar panels are very expensive and will be unreliable during the rainy season.

4. The town stays the same and does not get electricity.

  Negatives:  They will be able to retain their “backpacker” adventure crowd, but probably will not be able to attract the older, more lucrative tourist who enjoys their amenities. They will have a hard time trying to retain their youth in the town without development of new jobs which will be more difficult without electricity.

Improved Access to Local Population Centers

Improved access to nearby population centers and regional markets is a hotly debated topic among the residents of Monkey River Village. Entrepreneurs want to see better roads and a bridge in order to bring in more trade and tourism. At the same time, many of the people in town see it bringing in many of the aspects of the outside world they would like to avoid, namely; criminals, drugs and violence.  Some village residents referred to the Monkey River as their “police force”  and want to maintain that separation from the main road as a way to keep out unwanted elements and potential criminals.

1.They build a bridge.

            Positives: This will open up MRT to development, tourism and cheaper supplies

and goods. It will also allow some people the possibility of commuting to

Independence for work, but returning to MRT to live with less hassle in having to get people with boats to enable them to have this option.

Negatives: This will open them up to anyone, including a possible criminal element. Also MRT does not have the road structure to really accommodate traffic and any car will find it hard to maneuver and easily congesting the town.

2. They build a ferry.

Positives: This will have many of the benefits of having a bridge, but allow them to be more selective of who enters the town and make them aware of whoever is in the town for security reasons.

Negatives: This will still not solve the problem of infrastructure in MRT not being able to accommodate cars.

3. Build a foot bridge.

Positives: This will allow easier access to the town for commerce, but not allow cars in. It will also enable people to cross without having to depend on people with boats.

Negatives: It would be difficult to carry heavy or cumbersome items across a foot bridge. It would still allow easy access to possible criminal elements.

4. No bridge.

Positives: People with boats can still keep making money by charging people to cross and work as sentinels in watching out for criminal elements.

Negatives: Without a bridge it makes it difficult to develop a viable commercial or tourist trade and make it inconvenient for many locals to access markets and opportunities on the other side of the river.

Strengthen Local Community Organizations

While Monkey River Village has several key organizations and a strong Village Council, it seem to need the development of organizations for women and youth. For example, it has a soccer field and a basketball hoop, yet no organized sporting teams, women’s groups, or youth groups. The formation of youth groups has been expressed as a place in need of improvement through interviewing, especially with women’s concerns in the community.

1.Start women’s group.

Positives: This will allow women to congregate not only for social aspects, but to organize over community concerns. It will also have a more positive atmosphere for retention of youth and to get developmental concerns a voice.

Negatives: Maybe hard to organize around busy schedules. Can only form groups if there is a community want or need, can not force them to organize.

2. Start Sports Team.

            Positives: Community cohesiveness. It will bring people together for enjoyment.

Negatives: Since Monkey River Town is so secluded it might be logistically impossible to get other towns to visit or get transportation to other towns to compete against.

3. Youth Groups.

Positives: By bringing kids together, you bring parents together and this could be an opportune time to network and work together. This group could work as a springboard in youth retention in the community.