Environment C.E.O. Says Recent Visit Was Made to Cayo Rosario
According to the Ambergris Caye Citizens for Sustainable Development, the Department of Environment has failed to do its proper research, having only consulted once with the residents and stakeholders. The National Environmental Appraisal Committee gave the green light to a project that will see forty-plus overwater structures built on the island. Today, C.E.O. in the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Doctor Percival Cho, told News Five that he and the Minister recently visited Cayo Rosario; this is something Billy Leslie and the folks over at ACCSD find hard to believe.
Percival Cho
Dr. Percival Cho, C.E.O., Ministry of Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment, and Sustainable Development
“We did a site visit some weeks ago Hipolito, myself and the Minister. We got a hands-on feel of the exact situation there. We are looking at it very closely. I cannot make any announcements yet, but we are looking at the situation very closely with respect to taking into account some of the concerns that fishermen have put forward.”
Hipolito Novelo
“The project has been downsized tremendously.”
Dr. Percival Cho
“Yes, by the NEAC, it was downsized.”
On the Phone: Billy Leslie, Former Co-Chair, ACCSD
“If the department of the environment would have only come to look at these islands, they would have noted the pristine life; the delicateness of that area and how the place is full of fish, especially in a time like now when the Sargasso is really damaging the eastern side of our country. We should look at these developments and not allow major developments. And they are not even talking about their land; they are talking about placing things over what is not even theirs. They are putting forty-five structures on top of our delicate bajos; that’s not theirs. This specific island, if you take your sixty-six feet of crown land and you go around that island, you are left with a lagoon in the middle. The Department of Environment needs to do their job right.”
