OCEANA offers nature in exchange for words

audrey matura shephard

To say the least, a lot has been said regarding the state of Belize’s Barrier Reef.  There was the inscription as a World Heritage Site, which meant that the second largest barrier reef in the world had a place in world history and tourists and locals alike have flocked to the sea to view it.  But commercial developments have been the main threats to this fragile ecosystem. Due to dredging and construction on sites within the reef, UNESCO, placed the reef on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. That was in 2009, but an even larger and darker threat looms over the seas and that is oil exploration. In light of the concessions to drill for oil in Belize’s territorial waters, OCEANA has decided to keep the dialogue alive with an essay competition for all ages. OCEANA’s Vice President for Belize, Audrey Matura Shepherd explains more.

Audrey Matura Shepherd, Vice President, OCEANA Belize

“As you know World Oceans Day will be June eighth; that’s a very important day. It doesn’t mean that everyday isn’t important for the ocean, but it is a day for us to sit and reflect as to the bounty and beauty of our oceans and the importance it is to our life. So what OCEANA has done, it has launched a competition for which we will announce on World Ocean Day. So our participants have a limited time to write their essay, but the essay topic is very interesting. The topic is ‘Offshore Oil Exploration and Drilling; Is It Good for Our People and Oceans’? So that gives the liberty of the writers to go for, against or just take a neutral ground. But the idea is to maintain this topical issue to tie it in with World Oceans Day and to also give our Belizeans the opportunity to really critically think about this. So what we are doing with this competition; it is open to three different categories. It is open to a general category open to the public—anyone can write as long as they are a Belizean and they are above the age of sixteen. So you don’t have to be in school. The prize for that would be an all expense day trip to Blue Hole, the National Blue Hole, our most beautiful area to visit. And you can bring along nine friends; that is donated by Hugh Parkey and OCEANA. Then the second category is open to high schools only. For the one to the high schools, it could be an individual from the high school submits it or a group of students or maybe an environmental club or whatever. But the beauty about that is that the prize for that one, again it is a trip but this is to Hol Chan Marine Reserve. All expense paid, we’ll get you there, you go on the tour, food and everything. But the winner, if he or she is an individual, can bring along twenty-four friends. For that one it’s a total of twenty-five people who benefit. So imagine you winning and then saying to your classmates, we are going on this trip. And then the third category is open to all tertiary institutions. Now I know a lot of schools have closed already so then this means that the students have no reason not to take the time and write out a lovely essay. The third category, the prize would be a trip again, but this time to  Placencia to the whale shark zone. And for this one it would be for four friends—the winner and three friends, all expense paid. And this one is being donated by Avadon Divers and SEA, that’s the Southern Environmental Association that protects the zone there and by OCEANA.”

There have been eighteen companies that have been granted concessions to explore for oil on land and sea.  The Association of Protected Management Organizations (APAMO) has gone on record to ask the government to ban all forms of exploration in the sea.