Anti-oil coalition grows and demands moratorium
Earlier in the newscast we told about the Guatemalan company that has a license for oil exploration in the Sapodilla cayes. At the same forum this morning, other groups penned their signature to join the cause against oil exploration. News Five’s Jose Sanchez has been following this story and has this report.
Jose Sanchez, reporting
The Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage started with seven members but have skyrocketed to many more today as is signified by a packed audience inside the Radisson’s Caracol room. With a signature, environmental groups, citizen groups and activist groups pledged their support to the cause. APAMO’s coordinator, Yvette Alonzo, read the coalition’s mission statement.
Yvette Alonzo, Coordinator, APAMO
Yvette Alonzo
“All members have pledged to act without reservation to protect our people and their right to their natural heritage. The members of the Belize Coalition to save our natural heritage call on the Government of Belize, to adopt a resolution declaring a ban on offshore oil exploration and drilling in our Belizean waters, to adopt a resolution declaring a ban on oil exploration and drilling in our protected areas, to initiate an open and transparent process to review and strengthen the existing legislations such as the Petroleum Act, the E.I.A regulations and other acts ,to regulate oil exploration and drilling in Belize, to develop a comprehensive petroleum policy and plan along with an energy plan for Belize, to put in place necessary measures to effectively monitor and regulate the oil industry in Belize.”
Healthy Reef’s resident marine biologist, Melanie McField, showed how quickly Ambergris Caye and the reef can be affected by a spill.
Melanie McField, Marine Biologist, Healthy Reef
“Ten minutes after the spill and you can see it’s already impacted the Barrier Reef and Turneffe reaching that whole distance across and some mangroves that are in there too. So we’ll just keep upping the time and see how quickly, we’re at nineteen minutes right now. Yeah, Goff’s and English are buried right now, it just happens very fast, when you think about response time, if something happens like that , there’s almost no response time to start calling around and finding out whose got the boons, whose boat are we gonna use, where are we gonna go it’s all incredibly difficult.”
APAMO’s Chairman, Edilberto Romero, says that the system could be manipulated and the government can get even less earnings than it expected.
edilberto romero
Edilberto Romero, Chairman, APAMO
“ Expenses are being removed before the government gets its share and so the oil companies are putting exploration expenses for looking for other wells; and those exploration expenses are reducing the revenues, and so when you apply what the government is getting, it’s even less. And then we heard about the Windfall tax which is based on US ninety dollars per barrel. And we know it is far below that we are getting based on Windfall tax, so its zero that we’re getting based on Windfall tax.”
The economic backbone of the tourism industry, the B.T.I.A. officially signed on today as a coalition member.
Dionne Chamberlain Miranda, President, B.T.I.A.
“We have gotten very serious positions from all of our membership, from all ten destinations. They don’t support oil drilling in Belize on the offshore basis. And so we know that, our definite position is that we have signed onto the coalition today and we look forward to supporting all of the efforts in line with this.”
Jose Sanchez
“What is the economic impact in terms of revenue generated by the tourism industry, with your membership?”
Dionne Chamberlain Miranda
dionne miranda
“I can’t tell you in terms of my specific membership; but I can tell you in reference to what we’ve been going through in terms of the presentations and it ranges up to 500 million dollars per year; and when you look at what the government will really be yielding out of this it’s very minimal, it’s around eighty, ninety million dollars a year. So the risk with us gambling without tourism future is very serious and when you look at it, just the minor preparations for exploration, that can affect the Barrier Reef, it’s really a gamble and it’s a gamble to the point, is it really worth it? And within my tourism stakeholders, all six hundred plus of us from around the entire country, we’ve said no.”
‘No to oil drilling.’ That is the message that the tourism industry as well environmentalists are saying. The coalition now intends to get support from the major banks and the rest of the population. Jose Sanchez reporting for News Five.
