Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage ready to take govt to court

The Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage was created in June. Since its formation, it has acquired membership from the Belize Tourism Industry Association, San Pedro’s Mayor Elsa Paz, the Association of Protected Areas Management Organization, OCEANA and COLA amongst others.  The fast growing group which is calling for the government to ban offshore oil exploration, is preparing to seek legal advice on six government awarded exploration contracts that it contends were handed out to companies that did not fulfill the requirements to receive them. But before that happens, one of the founding members of the coalition has just returned from the Gulf of Mexico where it received firsthand knowledge of the economic and environmental effects of the British Petroleum Oil Spill.  News Five attended the coalition’s conference this afternoon.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

The Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage indicated that in the next few months it should have about fifteen thousand signatures demanding a ban on offshore drilling, ready to be handed over to the government. The coalition’s chairman highlighted many reasons why the situation is urgent.

Geovanni Brackett, Chairman, Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage

giovanni brackett

“Why are we advocating even when there is not a rig out there at the present moment? It’s because no sensible government blocks off its entire country without consideration, without having a no entry zone.”

The other strong advocate in the movement is Oceana. Oceana’s Vice President for Belize, Audrey Matura Shepherd, recently returned from her excursion aboard the Latititude, which sailed with scientists on an exploratory mission along areas affected by the BP Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

audrey matura shepherd

Audrey Matura Shepherd, VP OCEANA Belize

“After I left my vessel I flew to New Orleans and then I went to a parish and what I did there I hired a small boat and went actually into the marshes in that area called Baratera Bay. I am telling you, that seventy-five percent of oil you may not see it again visibly from the air and on the surface of the water. But I saw many of it on the marshes. What has happened it washed up onto the marshes and the marshes are like these big islands of this special grass that they call the marshes. And what has happened the oil sucked into that and seeped into it. The bigger ones you don’t see it so much, but the smaller ones, you saw the pictures I showed today. What has happened, the oil goes into these grasses, kills it and then when it dies, then of course once the grass has died it no longer has the ability for the roots to remain in the soil to hold the soil together so then it creates a form of erosion. But also, what the fishermen are telling me is that when the marshes die, what is happening, the habitat of three of the most important seafood industry is dying; that is their red snapper, their crabs and their shrimp. So when shrimp season opened Monday on the sixteenth, people weren’t out shrimping. The fishing boats were out trying to help still clean some of the mess. So it is a lie. It has been so bad for them that now they are building a manmade island to be a barrier so that when the oil from under the water washes up on the marshes, this sand will suck it in and then hope to scrape the sand each time and replace it again.”

Edilberto Romero, Chairman, APAMO

edilberto romero

“Transportation of oil is a big problem, it’s a huge risk. We now have it; I think there’s about a million barrels going out, exported and there’s about three quarters of a million coming in that’s imported that we use. The country is actually producing more oil than what we consume. But still the prices are not going down and they won’t go down because it’s ruled by world prices. So don’t think that the prices will go down. But it’s a risk—transportation is a risk right now the government and DOE is praying that no accident happens. If an accident happens, we will not be prepared for it even if they have a draft plan, it’s just a draft, it’s not completed. We’re not prepared for it. If we put more offshore oil exploration and drilling, we put pipes and we have boats coming in and out, the risk of accidents are gonna increase.”

Audrey Matura Shepherd

“It has reached the point where we think Oceana needs to take the step forward, get all our legal issues intact, prepare out legal brief and the next thing is to file our claims in court. We have to take this serious and when I came back from my visit in Louisiana, I feel more motivated. What I have seen there cannot happen to people here. At least in Belize we had one brave mayor in San Pedro who said no to this and hopefully with time she will be joined by different ministers especially the Minister of Tourism, the Minster of the Environment and the Minister of Fisheries. But Belizeans we have the last say.”
Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.