People’s Assembly addresses environmental issues
The People United Party has announced its platform on the management of Belize’s environment. Party Leader Said Musa, accompanied by P.U.P. standard bearers from across the nation traveled to San Pedro Town on Friday night to make the presentation during the fourth in the series of consultations known as the People’s Assembly.
Said Musa, Leader, P.U.P.
“The P.U.P.’s environmental policy is based on three principles: the attainment of sustainable human and economic development; the conscious use of environmental policies to alleviate rural poverty and improve the quality of life of all Belizeans, in settlements and villages, in towns and cities, from the cayes to the mountains; and the inclusion of communities and civil society in the planning and implementation of policies and projects.
The main environmental issues affecting Belize today are deforestation, marine resource depletion, coastal zone and beach erosion, pollution and waste disposal problems, land use patterns, including pesticide contamination and new population pressures.
There is an absence of any comprehensive land use strategy. We will introduce management systems for parks and reserves and give responsibility to local communities for co-managing national parks, coastlines and sites of special interests, as well as for safeguarding plant and animal wildlife.
The unbridled exploitation of our forest must be ended. The livelihood and cultural integrity of indigenous people must be protected and local community leaders must be brought into the decision making on development plans and programs affecting the areas, which they live.
The lack of a land use policy for urban and rural development has resulted in the establishment of residential areas lacking recreational areas and facilities. Similarly, rural settlements and villages have sprouted up in areas that are distant from markets and roads and lacking health and educational facilities.
The accelerating destruction of our national resource and environment is one of Belize’s most serious challenges. We will initiate new approaches and create new incentives to pursue environmentally sensitive strategies and practices.
We recognize that questions of land tenure and land use are so fundamental to the question of sustainable development, and so important to our people, that we will deal with those issues in a separate policy document.
Our public policy will not be driven by financial opportunities for immediate personal gain. In order to safeguard Belize’s non-renewable natural resources, the next P.U.P. government will put into operation the following twelve-point strategy.
The People’s United Party recognizes that a balance must be maintained between growth and development on the one hand and the need to preserve and conserve critical natural resources on the other.
Our environmental commitment is part if our belief in a different Belize. We know that our party cannot do it alone and so we are thankful for the new environmental awareness sweeping Belize and grateful for the work being done by so many outstanding institutions.”
Also during last Friday’s People’s Assembly, Musa presented his party’s twelve point plan designed to achieve sustainable resources development and encouraging people participation in the management of Belize’s resources. The next People’s Assembly is scheduled to take place in Orange Walk Town.
