RGA/7/6
Sponsored by Kunal Pradhan, Riya Gowdar, Teagan Green, Rachael Feinbaum of Webb School
The delegates above represented the Delegation of Belize.
This legislation was filed in the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural category
Presented as part of the MUN B 2023 conference
| 1 | The General Assembly, |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Considering Belize has one of the most devastating economical and environmental issues in |
| 4 | Central America. It is an urgent matter in need of assistance. One major issue is the critical |
| 5 | amounts of deforestation. The excessive quantity is due to local and international logging |
| 6 | companies sending workers to log in places such as Toledo, Chiquibul, and the Selva Maya forest. |
| 7 | With 78 million trees logged every year in Belize, the quota of trees is rapidly declining. This leads |
| 8 | to a decrease in natural resources for animals, as well as the native Belizeans. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Stating that between 1986 and 2018, forest stocks in Belize and around Selva Maya declined by |
| 11 | more than 28 percent. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Noting that the forested area of Belize had a drop from 80% in 2010 to 55.5% in 2023, the main |
| 14 | causation of this was due to agriculture along with logging. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | We the delegation of Belize do hereby: |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Draws the attention toward imposing a 6% tax on the logging companies annual profits. On |
| 19 | average, a logging company in Belize makes 5.9 million USD per year. The 6% imposed tax would |
| 20 | give 360,000 USD to go towards tree seeds and salaries for hired government workers. This would |
| 21 | allow the hiring of up to 20 people using 300,000 USD, while the leftover 60,000 USD would be |
| 22 | able to fund thousands of tree seeds and equipment. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Considering that the average Belizean salary is 6,800 USD, our resolution will provide a |
| 25 | sustainable salary of 15,000 USD for the hired government workers. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | Calls upon the United Nations to take this matter urgently due to human and wildlife at risk. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | This resolution would not require any extra costs for the United Nations or the citizens of Belize. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | Additionally, it would positively impact the environment along with hundreds of thousands of |
| 32 | Belizeans. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | |
| 35 | Insists that the United Nations contribute an estimated $140,000 baseline cost to build these |
| 36 | shelters, with an estimated cost of $9 million to fund one shelter and to keep it active, and an |
| 37 | estimated $68 million for the shelters in total; |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Designates the building of these shelters to be built by workers from Seychelles, who will be paid |
| 40 | an estimated $7 (95 rupees) per labor worker for every square foot, providing great job |
| 41 | opportunities for people that have been negatively affected by these natural disasters; |
| 42 | |
| 43 | Encourages the United Nations to fund and send additional supplies such as steel and concrete to |
| 44 | each of Seychelles’s main islands for the upkeep, repair, and dispersion of more shelters among |
| 45 | other islands if needed; |
| 46 | |
| 47 | All told, this resolution would cost $80 million USD, which would account for 0.02% of the UN's |
| 48 | funds; |
| 49 | |
| 50 | Proclaims that this resolution will come into effect in January of the year 2025. |
| 51 | |
| 52 |