Dredging in Pelican Cayes threatens World Heritage Site

It was big news when word leaked out that government was considering the de-reservation and sale of thousands of acres of Bacalar Chico National Park on Ambergris Caye. But while public reaction was strong and justified, with little fanfare, a hundred miles to the south, activities were taking place that threaten to destroy one of Belize’s most ecologically important marine areas. News Five’s Stewart Krohn reports.

Stewart Krohn, Reporting
These remarkable pictures were taken in 1993 as part of a documentary called “The Sea of Belize.” The site chosen for the underwater photography was the Pelican Cayes southeast of Dangriga. They were selected because of the pristine condition of the mangrove islands … a place where thousands of years of ideal circumstances created a diverse environment of corals, sponges, and other marine life unparalleled in Belize or the entire Caribbean. The unique value of the area was recognised in 1996 when the Pelican range was included in the Southwater Caye Marine Reserve, one of seven sites comprising the Belize Barrier Reef World Heritage Site.

But that was then … and this is now. On many of these once untouched cayes, the mangrove has been slashed and the surrounding sea bottom dredged for fill to take its place … all in the name of development.

Stewart Krohn
“The land I’m standing on was not too long ago just mangrove and water. The question that arises is whether this transformation was a good thing or bad and whether we should even care.”

This week some people who care very much paid a visit to the Pelicans. They represent a sampling of relevant government departments and the NGO community. Since the names of the individual islands often vary, depending on who you talk to, the group uses G.P.S. coordinates to confirm the locations. Their questions range from the specific—such as whether the proper permits have been obtained from the Geology and Forest Departments—to the broader concerns of environmental protection.

Julian Lewis, National Federation of Community based Co-managers
“The activity that has taken place here is destroying the natural beauty of the island.”

Julian Lewis of Dangriga heads the National Federation of Community-Based Co-Managers. He has watched the changes taking place in these waters and believes that things have gone too far.

Julian Lewis
“Having a title for a property you definitely have rights, but within that same right you also have certain responsibilities. You cannot just develop it in any reckless way. We have to always put conservation first.”

But keeping conservation first is definitely not what is happening in the Pelican cayes. What is happening is tourism … or in this case, the environmental degradation that precedes it.

Here at Manatee Caye and neighbouring Fishermen’s Caye a U.S. group has denuded the islands to make way for Treasure Cove … what its website says will be Belize’s first mega resort, complete with spa, casino, and six dozen over the water cabanas.

Of course, despite its pitch for investors and promises of the good life, all these mega-developers have managed to do so far is destroy one of Belize’s most ecologically critical areas. And the destruction on land is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Dan Miller runs the Smithsonian Institution’s research station on Carriebow Caye.

Dan Miller, Smithsonian Institution
“The problem is that one, they first have to clear the mangroves off and when they do that, the mangroves are the source of the island in a lot of cases, in other words the detritus, the dead leaves, the dead material falls down, that’s what gives the island its structure, its base. So when you take the trees away, number one you lose that. Number two, then after they take the trees away then they bring fill material from surrounding areas, which means they have to scour the bottom, so they kill whatever is on the bottom. They pump it up here and if you look around you’ll see shells and coral and all of this dead stuff. That fill material when they first pumped it into the island is like a slurry and it’s like the finest, lightest particles. It’s like sugar mixed with water and if they don’t put proper barriers or containment, then what happens at high tide all of that stuff washes off and now it runs into the reefs, which all of these islands are surrounded by coral reefs, and that sediment settles on the coral reefs.”

And some of those coral reefs that looked so healthy in 1993 are today fighting for survival.

Melanie McField, Coordinator, Health Reef Initiative
“What I see on the roots of the mangroves are sponges and oysters and tunicats that are very covered in silt.”

Melanie McField, a Smithsonian researcher and Coordinator of the Healthy Reef Initiative, has been studying Belize’s coral reefs for almost twenty years and she’s not optimistic.

Melanie McField
“Some amount of time and weathering will make things come back. Nature can be resilient, but one thing that won’t come back is all those mangroves that have been cleared. The island is changed. They’ve left this fringe. … When I went in there you still do have juvenile fish swimming around the fringe, but how long that’s gonna last it’s yet to be seen.”

That something like this could happen at all, let alone in the middle of a World Heritage Site, is disturbing to say the least. And while at this point it is not clear to what extent existing dredging and mangrove cutting regulations may have been violated or ignored, the legal framework for protection of vital marine resources is far from strong.

Melanie McField
“This whole area was created as a marine reserve to protect the underwater environment and that’s what—I think we have a gap in the permitting process that’s really focussed on the land system and not really looking at what it’s doing to the subtidal areas.”

Yvette Alonzo
“We would like to see for example, more transparency, better criteria that are set in terms of how to manage these areas. … And that’s all we’re asking for, we’re asking for a plan that can tell us and guide us in terms of what coastal development should occur, where, and how.”

And while those decisions may be difficult, for us to bury our heads in the reclaimed sand is perhaps the worst solution of all.

Dan Miller
“The reefs around here had life and have life that are unequalled anywhere else and that’s why they made it a World Heritage Site. The idea was to maintain and protect it.”

Stewart Krohn
“We’ve been on three cayes now and every one it’s the same story. Isn’t it a little embarrassing in almost 2008 that we’re still doing this kind of thing?”

Melanie McField
“I don’t even know if I’d say still doing it because I don’t think in ’96 when the World Heritage Site was declared we would have done it. The government would have said no.”

Meanwhile, the filling continues, in different ways, both inside and outside the protected areas. Private homes, resorts, some displacing mangrove, others creating land where none existed before.

Stewart Krohn
“The technology for filling these cayes is not particularly difficult. A suction dredge, dragline or excavator can all do it pretty easily … and with a thousand more islands just like this one, it may only be a matter of time until a true Belizean mangrove caye exists only in the history books. Stewart Krohn for News Five.”

The legal situation regarding the marine reserve is not clear and we are attempting to ascertain who owns each caye and which projects actually have valid dredging and mangrove permits. What is clear is that the patchwork of regulations governing activities in Belize’s coastal zone do not provide a comprehensive framework for environmental protection.