Conservation groups criticise de-reservation of park
In the aftermath of the Musa administration’s announcement that it plans to de-reserve almost three thousand acres of land in the Bacalar Chico National Park, local conservationists have been pooling their resources to launch a coordinated campaign to reverse the decision. This afternoon, the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations and the Belize Tourism Industry Association held a press conference in Belize City to announce that they are organising a public event on November sixth to voice their opposition to Government’s plans. According to Chairman of APAMO, Edilberto Romero, in recent months the organisation has sent a number of letters to the Minister of Natural Resources and other officials to express serious concerns about the number of protected areas that have been and are being de-reserved. Romero says their letters have gone unanswered so when they heard that Bacalar Chico was up for grabs, they decided to take their fight to the streets.
Edilberto Romero, Chairman, APAMO
“Bacalar Chico is like the worse that could happen, it’s certainly a black day in the history of Belize and conservation to even consider Bacalar Chico for de-reservation.”
“APAMO is doing all the preparations to basically bring the message across and actually request from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Natural Resources that they commit to no de-reservation of Bacalar Chico and commit to stop the de-reservation of protected areas and that they commit to the activation of the National Protected Areas Commission and that any de-reservation or reservation of any site should go through the National Protected Areas Commission and go through proper consultations.”
Janelle Chanona
“Now the Government isn’t ignorant of its international obligations under these treaties, why do you think they would still go ahead and consider this?”
Edilberto Romero
“That’s a good question that we are trying to understand why they are going ahead to do that. I honestly from a conservation point, I don’t understand why they are doing it. I would like to give you a good explanation from a conservation standpoint, but definitely I cannot, I just think that they have totally gone on the other side from a Belize that is environmental conscious that is concerned about protection and sustainable development to the other side that it is only concerned about money and who knows, probably votes.”
Romero says while APAMO is a member of the National Protected Areas Commission, a body to which these types of concerns could be addressed, the Minister has yet to call a meeting of the group. APAMO has gone on record to contend that if Bacalar Chico is de-reserved, international funding for local environmental groups would be jeopardised as well as tourism arrivals threatened.
APAMO is made up of eighteen local environmental groups, one of them being the Belize Audubon Society. According to Audubon’s Executive Director, Anna Hoare, one of the areas also up for de-reservation is the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. Hoare says their sources indicate that a portion of Crooked Tree will be sold to businessman Luke Espat. But she says that as a wetland of international importance, the site should never be commercially developed.
Anna Hoare, Executive Director, Belize Audubon Society
“We do not advocate for total protection, we advocate for a balance between protection and development and so we do want to see development, but it must happen sustainably. So in some cases there are some areas that really need to be protected in order that proper development occurs and in this case, you can’t have development in an area that is very fragile because in this case we are protecting that area because it is serving the wider society. That is a flood plain for the entire area, so it’s not serving one developer or one individual it’s serving the greater community. And so protected areas, you want to recognise are not just being protected because they have pretty birds, they have various functions and in this case the flood plain function is extremely critical. And of course you have the other functions, it’s a tourist attraction, it’s important for birds, but most importantly we want to say that it’s important because of people. People need to ensure that this area is protected because that’s the area that will absorb the water when we have floods, heavy rains. This is the area that absorbs that so you don’t want to change that dramatically because you want to retain—let the wetland retain its natural function, which is one of those would be to serve as a flood plain.”
Janelle Chanona
“You have been advised that Mr. Espat would make that kind of dramatic development or he wouldn’t be able to sustainably develop the area?”
Anna Hoare
“Well we have seen the type of guidelines that he has uses in his development and because of that we don’t see the ethic used—any sustainability ethic being practiced and so that’s why we are extremely concerned. And it’s not only Mr. Espat, we see a lot of developers that are truly not concerned. They are concerned about an immediate profit, but they are not concerned about the greater community.”
Other organisations issuing press releases today against the de-reservation of Bacalar Chico include Green Reef, BELPO, BACONGO, M.B.R.S., The Wildlife Conservation Society, Smithsonian Institution and concerned students and faculty at the University of Belize.
In a press release late this afternoon Minister of Natural Resources Florencio Marin announced the signing of a statutory instrument declaring the creation of a new national park in the karst hills between the Sibun River and Northern Lagoon. The Peccary Hills National Park encompasses ten thousand seven hundred and forty-four acres.
