Gegg cuts mangrove; residents granted injunction
The controversy appeared to have been settled back in May when citizens of the West Landivar neighbourhood convinced the Belize City Council that a marina proposed by businessman David Gegg ought not to go forward. Apparently the developer is not giving up so easily. Over the weekend workers began to chop mangrove on the site and while they managed to cut well over half the trees, attorney Tanya Moody managed to obtain an interim injunction to stop them from cutting more.
Tanya Moody, Attorney for West Landivar Residents
“Mr. Gegg on Saturday night apparently hired some workers to go down to his parcel, his leasehold parcel to chop down the mangroves so I was notified about the situation around four o’clock Saturday evening and I immediately went down to the site and saw at least sixty to seventy percent of the mangroves chopped down. So I rushed to the office and the instructions of the West Landivar Action Committee to apply for an interim injunction to stop Mr. Gegg from cutting the remaining mangroves. I called Mr. Sabido the Chief Forest Officer, at the time he’s actually working for the Forest Department, who informed me that he only orally gave Mr. Gegg an application an a permit to trim those mangroves but trimming and cutting are two different things so the mangroves are literally cut. So I explained to him what the situation was on the parcel and he said he would have come down to stop Mr. Gegg but that never happened. So I continue to prepare my application form for the interim injunction and I was able to get it granted by Justice Arana that night and serve the copies personally myself on Mr. Gegg’s residence, the interim order and the application form. The judge allowed me to prepare the proper proceedings today so that is in fact filed in the Supreme Court this morning and it’s also on behalf of Mr. Cecil Arnold.”
But if Gegg has a valid permit to cut mangrove how can his actions be unlawful? According to Moody, the permit never should have been issued.
Tanya Moody
“It is contravention with the Forest Protection of Mangroves Act. There is Section 5 that says the Forest Department cannot issue a permit to alter if it is in contrary to the public interest and everyone knows, the national public knows that the West Landivar residents do not want the mangroves cut, they do no want that development there so it has been public so for them now to issue a permit is in contravention to act, no doubt.”
Moody says she will be filing an action for judicial review against the Forest Department’s issuing of the permit. She has also asked the Department of Environment to reconsider its granting of environmental clearance, saying the project should require a full E.I.A. review.
