The project sought to demonstrate through the pilot, how Climate Change resilience building can be developed in a rural community. Specifically it provided assistance to the Flowers Bank Community Group in the Belize River Valley. They depend predominantly on natural resources for their livelihoods, and on biomass fuel for household energy used particularly in the preparation of meals.
It was recognized that there could be a potential income generating activity, which could be conducted without the level of disturbance that currently results from slash and burn farming. The activity would involve the collection and processing of cohune palm nuts from the tropical forest. In Belize, women are mainly involved and use the activity as a source of income.
The intervention sought to further develop the existing Cohune Palm Nut collection and processing facility in order to demonstrate the feasibility of a model that could generate increased revenue for the community. Income could be generated from the production of:
- virgin cohune oil for food and production of biodiesel
- high grade charcoal for bio-energy applications such as cooking, and
- high quality meal for animal feed
The Project provided support for the expansion of the existing building to accommodate:
- the new oil production methodology (cold press and filtration),
- the bottling of the oil and storage areas for products and supplies, as well as facilities for drying the nuts.
- training and capacity-building in the operation and management of the new facility, including basic accounting and record-keeping, management of inventory and purchasing and sales were provided to the members of the group.
