Tree line at Victoria Peak partially cleared…

Victoria Peak stands majestically proud at three thousand six hundred and seventy-five feet. Hidden deep in the Maya Mountains, the natural monument is the highest point in Belize. And tonight coming on the heels of Earth Day it has come to light, that major environmental damage has been done to the Peak. Earlier this month a portion of the summit of the reserve was cleared for personal reasons and now the Belize Audubon Society is irate over what it says is an illegal act. Marion Ali flew to Victoria Peak today and has this report.

Marion Ali, Reporting
This is the Victoria Peak Natural Monument from three hundred feet above. At first glance, it looks normal and a small clearing of the vegetation at the peak may escape the eye. But a closer look shows that an area measuring roughly ten by fifteen feet has been chopped and cleaned away.

Once on the summit itself this is how the area looks. It is probably just big enough to land a small chopper. But no one got permission from the co-manager of the monument, the Belize Audubon Society to clear any portion of Victoria Peak. So on April fourth when some staff members and hikers climbed the peak, they were shocked at their discovery. The Audubon has since sent a letter alerting the Forest Department of the clearing, expressing outrage that someone had cleared a portion of the greenery.

Amanda Burgos Acosta, Advocacy Prog. Mgr., Belize Audubon Society
“This shrubbery is technically it’s called lower montane elfin shrubbery so it doesn’t grow very tall. It is a unique habitat to Victoria Peak because it only grows at very high elevations; something between five hundred and a thousand meters. This incident is very sad and it’s unfortunate and we feel that if management had been informed it could have been avoided completely. No one should go in there without permission that you should contact management, that you should not clear anything. The dramatic part of this is that it is a unique habitat. You only find it at Victoria Peak. It’s elfin in that it doesn’t grow higher than six feet, a little bit more and it will take years for this to grow back.”

But aside from the clear breach of Chapter two-fifteen of the National Parks Systems Act, Advocacy Programme Manager at the Belize Audubon Society, Amanda Burgos Acosta says there are serious environmental concerns.

Amanda Burgos Acosta
“The rainy season is coming and so erosion is a concern for us. We have very strict protocols, guidelines that we use when we go to Victoria Peak to preserve the area. The summit itself is at a very high elevation and so what will happen is—or what we are hoping won’t happen too dramatically—is that if we have a very strong or heavy rainy season, it can erode that part of the summit because it’s—which will then mean that the whole natural monument will be affected in terms of its aesthetics, in terms of the safety, the height might be affected as well. So it can have direct implications on the natural monument.”

But who would want to spoil a piece of Belize’s treasure and why? News Five has confirmed that the clearing was indeed made to land a chopper. But it turned out that the area cleared was too small for the military chopper to make a safe landing and hence the effort was abandoned. According to the Audubon’s letter, a group of officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Forest Department and the International N.G.O. Panthera and the Belize Zoo would have gone on a trip.

Amanda Burgos Acosta
“We checked our log books and we had no visitors for that day. What we did have was two tour guides who had basically put in that they were going to be hiking for that day. We then investigated with them as to what transpired.”

Marion Ali
“What did you find out?”

Amanda Burgos Acosta
“Upon investigation with the tour guides, we found out that they had been hired to facilitate a helicopter landing on the summit. Upon further investigation, they basically then told us that it was Ms Sharon Matola who had hired them. They were told that they were to clear the area so that a helicopter could land on the summit to facilitate a group that wanted to experience Victoria Peak’s summit without climbing.”

Marion Ali
“And, that they decided to facilitate without the permission, this is going against what they know right?”

Amanda Burgos Acosta
“This is a breach of protocol because the Belize Audubon Society very clearly has guidelines and they should know.”

Burgos says the Forest Department is the body that deals with such breaches. But that department is part of the same group that the Audubon names in the clearing. Burgos did say that penalties normally involve a fine. News Five will attempt to get the position of environmentalist, Sharon Matola tomorrow. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.