World Heritage Site in danger
A UNESCO team visited Belize in March to look at the state of the Barrier reef and the Pelican Caye range, which are considered a World Heritage Site. The team came to investigate dredging and cutting of mangroves inside the Pelican Caye range. The report is now complete and its findings are not good. It says that “the property is faced with specific and proven imminent danger, and should be considered for immediate inscription on the list of World Heritage in Danger.” The Leader of the Opposition, is a former minister of Natural Resources and during his tenure in office, seventy nine grants and fifty eight leases were distributed in the South Water Caye Marine Reserve. Briceño had to respond on whether he knew about the distribution of leases for land inside the World Heritage Site.
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“I want to make it absolutely clear, that at no time, this was brought to my attention. Because if it was brought to my attention, I would have never allowed them to lease any land in that area or sell any land in that World Heritage Site. I have dealt with tens of thousands of files. The files are brought to me, the technical people make their recommendations that this land is available, that it can be issued, that it can be approved, and then I approve it. It’s in no way in the file. The only way I could find out is if they were to put in the file, “this is in a marine reserve, and it is not recommended.” There is a process, and you know about the process, and you know that when we work with tens of thousands of files, Jules, that it can happen. And to say if it is nefarious or anything, it’s not for me to comment on that one. So, I just want to make that very clear. But, I want to tell you, that if I was still minister, and that was brought to my attention, I would tell those people that they must bring back those leases and those titles so that we can continue to protect them for Belizean people.”
Will the barrier reef be decertified as a world heritage site, or will it added to the list of World Heritage Sites that are in danger? Those questions will be discussed next week at the thirty-third Session of the World Heritage Committee in Spain.
