Bz. District leaders and G.O.B. discuss land issues
It is the tie that binds us as Belizeans…our quest for a piece of land to call our own; evidenced by the hundreds who make a weekly pilgrimage to the Ministry of Natural Resources in Belmopan. In an effort to cut down on the hassle, late last year government launched a land management program. And this week, officials from the management team are meeting with village leaders from the Belize District, including Caye Caulker and San Pedro, for the first in a series of district level consultations. According to Carolyn Trench Sandiford, the purpose of the exercise is to discuss and exchange ideas on the challenges and opportunities for land use at the national, regional and local levels.
Carolyn Trench-Sandiford, Consultant, Land Program
“What has been happening historically is that most of the decisions on land are being taken at the national level in Belmopan. So what you find in Belmopan is that land is allocated and distributed at the local level, whether its at the district level or the community level, in Belmopan without necessarily taking into consideration the needs of the community, and to also get their input to the decision making process as to whether the use they are going to put to the land is compatible with what they would like to see the land used for.”
Patrick Jones
“What will happen at the end of the forum so that it does not turn out the be just another talk shop?”
Carolyn Trench-Sandiford
“What is going to happen is that we are going to come to some sort of consensus as to whether at the very local level the community leaders at the town, village or city council level are aware of what taking on land use planning us all about because its not all about preparing plans. It’s about monitoring plans and it’s about making sure that people are in compliance with the plans that you approve. So it’s to have the technical capability, the human and financial resource capacity to be able to sustain it and to be able to dialogue with people and make people aware of the needs and benefits of land use planning.”
District level consultations should be completed by the end of July. It is expected that a working document, to be discussed at the regional level, will emerge from the discussions. Trench-Sandiford says that by year’s end the hope is that a comprehensive National Physical Planning Act would have been formulated, as well as an inter-agency framework, where the different groups will know their roles so as to ensure that one group does not interfere with the other’s work.
