Too big, too little info say Ara Macao opponents

They have been trading canon shots in the media for several months now and it looks like the battle is only beginning. I’m talking about the controversy over the tourism development near Placencia called Ara Macao. Today opponents of the project travelled to Belize City to tell the press that this bird just won’t fly.

Mary Toy, Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development
?We are asking that it be denied, just plain and simple.?

Today, Mary Toy and members of the Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development gathered in Belize City for a round table discussion on the controversial Ara Macao project. According to Toy, the project is enormous to the point of being offensive.

Mary Toy
?People that come to Belize don?t, if they wanted to go to Cancun, they?d go to Cancun. And particularly Placencia is the second largest resort destination in the entire country, it made that reputation on small hotels, guesthouses, local restaurants, tour guides, people came to Peninsula because they wanted to get to know local people.?

According to the Ara Macao proposal, the site near Riversdale will include eleven hundred housing units, a three hundred boat marina, a hundred thousand square foot casino and an eighteen-hole golf course. But for residents and local hotel owners, the project?s promise of more jobs is a small part of the big picture.

Marcia Fox, Mariposa Suites
?What if they do produce a thousand jobs but in the process, they take away the existing thousand jobs. What have we really achieved? And don?t we as representatives of this country, don?t we have a responsibility to see that our lifestyle, environment is nurtured? We need the support of the media; we need to go forward as concerned citizens, all of us for sustainable development. That?s what it is, if you want it in a box.?

Lydia Villanueva, Lydia?s Guesthouse
?I?m not worried that it?s going to knock out my business. I?m worried that it?s too big for the peninsula and my greatest worry with it is the cutting of this reef that they?ll put in there and then what will happen to us when hurricane come? Our place will be washed away??

Janelle Chanona
?Why you think that??

Lydia Villanueva
?Because of the logistics of it. You are cutting the peninsula. We were going to get the drift of from them come down to us.?

Debra Coston, Maya Beach Resident
?The thing here, they might walk away in five years, they might sell out and decide its too much wetlands and all that stuff and just go home. Then we have this problem.?

Alfred Ramirez, Seine Bight Resident
?We in the peninsula do not have a problem with development. It is the size of the development that we have a problem with and because of the size of the development, the type of impact it is going to have on the whole peninsula.?

According to the group, the Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development was formed three months ago, solely on the basis of the Environmental Impact Assessment for Ara Macao. A document they simply happened upon.

Mary Toy
?Right now, you?d almost have to spend all your time in Belmopan just hanging around the Lands office, trying to find out what?s going on and who?s buying property. You cannot make a rationale decision without adequate information. If you do, you might as well just flip a coin and this E.I.A. does not have enough information for NEAC to even make an Environmental Compliance Plan.?

NEAC, the National Environmental Appraisal Committee is the body that will either approve, deny or modify Ara Macao?s application to proceed. When asked what they would do if NEAC gave the massive project two thumbs up, Toy, an attorney by profession, said that legal action would be considered only as a last resort.

Mary Toy
?Why should we have to file a lawsuit to enforce the laws??

Alfonso Noble, Channel 7 Reporter
?Because that?s the way it works.?

Mary Toy
?How many people have filed lawsuits in this country??

Alfonso Noble, Channel 7 Reporter
?Well they filed against Chalillo and lost.?

Mary Toy
?Chalillo.?

Alfonso Noble, Channel 7 Reporter
?That?s the biggest one that comes to mind. They went through the entire process.?

Mary Toy
?How do we finance that? And why should we be forced to? Right now all we get are delaying tactics; all we get are no answers to questions.?

Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment John Briceño will be visiting the area this weekend in an effort to canvass the concerns of residents and get a better grasp of the issues involved.