Did a Developer Receive Permission to Clear Mangroves in San Mateo Area

There was a clearing of mangroves in the San Mateo area of San Pedro town for which an investigation is underway to determine whether or not the developer had received a permit from the Forest Depart to do so. Mayor Wally Nunez says that it is illegal to clear or even trim any mangroves and so when they were alerted of this activity, they started asking questions. He says that the development is for a docking port for barges on the north side of the island. While the development is needed, he wants to ensure that it got all the permits to do so. Here’s what he had to say:

Wally Nunez

Wally Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro

“There is still an investigation going on however our business unit works directly and closely with the Ministry of Forestry so any clearing of mangroves, even trimming of mangroves is illegal. So you need to obtain a permit ahead of time and they need to notify us as well. Actually, the ministry normally notifies us so that we know where is going to be done. We as a council are always on top of it trying to prevent these things from happening. At the moment, we understand that there is a development there that is going to take place. So it works both ways, but we had to have that information ahead of time and any clearing should be done with the permits and everything ahead of the game.”

Duane Moody

“So is it that these persons don’t have a permit?”

Wally Nunez

“At the moment, I am not familiar with any permits. But we have the building unit investigating. We know that there is an area that is planned to be developed as a port where the barge would be able to the area in the north and alleviate the traffic from town, which is a good thing in a way. But any clearing and anything done with respect to mangroves, we need to be notified and we need to be on top of the game because we can’t just be clearing up the mangroves. Part of it is where the barge is supposed to land and that is something that we want to work together with these barge companies so that all the goods coming north would land directly north instead of having to go through town in order to alleviate that traffic. So it is something good for the island, but the negative part of it was that we had to be notified when the clearing was supposed to take place. So it is something that we need to find that balance instead of just having these developers or anybody who wants to plan to do something in their property, we have to be notified so that we can plan ahead and we can inform the people of what is going to happen.”