After two months of backpacking in Central America, sustainable living and ethical fashion blogger Mikaela Loach fills us in on what she learnt and how the countries she visited are setting an ambitious example for the rest of the world.
This summer I spent two months backpacking across Belize, Guatemala and Mexico. It was a completely wonderful experience filled with beautiful nature and people with a passion to take care of Mother Earth.
Many of you will probably have heard about Costa Rica – incredibly – declaring to be the first carbon neutral country by 2021. This ambitious attitude towards combating the climate crisis extends all over the region. Here’s what I learnt about the different ways Latin America is embracing the movement to combat the climate crisis from my backpacking trip.
So often in sustainability movements we focus primarily on the work being done in the West. However, in the communities that are affected most by plastic pollution and overfishing, it’s the people who live there who are taking action for change.
Belize
In Belize, single-use plastic imports were banned in April 2019. This is incredible. The plan from the Belizian government was to phase out Styrofoam, single use shopping bags and plastic cutlery, following fears of the vulnerability of the coastline to the enormous floating island of plastic in the Caribbean Sea.