Audubon, Works Minister clash over Crooked Tree road

His nickname is “Clear the Land” but tonight Edmond Castro is being accused of clearing land without proper permission. Since taking office as Minister of State in the Ministry of Works, Castro has been undertaking several projects in his Belize Rural North constituency. One such initiative was a road across the western lagoon within the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. The idea was to increase access to farmlands and boost tourism in the area but according to the protected area’s co-manager, the Belize Audubon Society, the Ministry of Works officials did not follow to the law. That declaration was bolstered by the Forest Department who issued a stop order against the project even though the work is almost complete. This morning, Audubon’s Advocacy Coordinator Tanya Williams Thompson called on the Government to play by the rules.

Tanya Williams Thompson, Advocacy Coordinator, Belize Audubon Society
“Government made laws and we would want to see that Government is the first body which adhere to those laws and hopefully developers follow as well. This project should have gone to the Forest Department to get authorization because it is occurring within a protected area. They have the legal mandate under the National Park Systems Act which governs protected areas so they should have given authorization for development within the area. As well we have the Environmental Protection Act which governs development within Belize. So that’s a second process that should have gone through before the development started.”

Janelle Chanona
“As far as the environmental sanctity of the area, have you made any queries, studies there?”

Tanya Williams Thompson
“That’s the reason we are pushing for a study to be done. We are not sure may occur because of a road. There are general things that occur when you build a road within a wetland. For example we have an existing causeway that was built in 1983. There was no Department of Environment back then or no Environmental Protection Act. What happened in that case was that you had stagnant water on one side of the causeway and no water on the other side so all the forest everything died on that area. And as well the Crooked Tree villagers were unable to get water from that area, were unable to get food from that area. So those are some of the concerns we have for that second proposed causeway.”

The Belize Audubon Society and officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources have planned a site visit to Crooked Tree tomorrow.