Focusing on the Real Issues

During my tenure as Minister of Natural Resources and the environment, my work was not only demanding, but enjoyable, especially working with the environmental community in Belize.

Working with the NGO Community to design and implement the National Protected Areas System Plan was one of my biggest achievements as Environment Minister.

For years Belize has been enhancing its reputation as an eco- friendly nation, a reputation earned because of our practices.  More than a third of Belize is under protected status and everyone takes pride in the Belize Barrier Reef being designated a World Heritage site.

When I became Minister of Natural Resources there was no plan or national policy guiding the work in protected areas.  In devising such a plan, endless debates were held about the amount of protected areas in our country. Some argued that too much of the country was under protection while others said there wasn’t enough. It took more than a year of consultation and negotiation for the NGO community and the ministry to eventually complete a National System Plan.

Fundamental to this plan was the issue of sustainable development. We had to ensure that central to all our decisions were the Belizean people – we have to meet their needs today without compromising the needs of future Belizeans.

As a government, we always had to keep this fine balance between development and the protection of the environment and the Department of the Environment (DOE) was always caught up in the middle of these discussions.

Of the many conflicting issues, one that created many heated discussions was oil exploration in Belize. Before the first commercially viable oil field was discovered in 2005, there was little interest from oil companies, however after that many companies started to express renewed interest in all the available blocks in Belize. It is during this time that several NGOs started to raise concerns about the exploration for oil in protected areas.

One of the first to raise this concern was the Sarstoon-Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM). US Capital, an oil company, had a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for oil exploration in the Toledo district that included parts of the Sarstoon-Temash National Park.  SATIIM felt that the National Parks Act prevented any commercial activity and they also strongly felt that any discovery of oil in the park could destroy the ecology of the area. SATIIM also opined that if any activity were to take place in this area, there must be clear rules of engagement including the preparation of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and that it must also be clearly spelt out how the indigenous communities would benefit financially from this activity.  I did not stay as Natural Resources Minister until the end of our government’s term and left before this issue could be resolved.

Today the NGO community is expressing serious concern about oil exploration, particularly offshore oil exploration. Feeding off the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the environmental damage being caused as a result of this spill, all Belizeans should be concerned over the potential damage of offshore drilling, especially how a spill could impact our Belize Barrier Reef.

It is however unfortunate that the Vice President of Oceana, a new NGO in Belize, decided to take a different approach than having a rational and constructive discussion on the issue of offshore exploration.  Oceana’s Vice President, instead of arguing on the merits of a ban on offshore exploration, decided to make unfounded accusations, spin incredulous stories about the nation’s territorial integrity and impute the character of some outstanding public officers, going as far as accusing people of treason.

This is very regrettable, for I believe that the Environmental community in Belize must keep its focus on the issue, which is offshore oil drilling and the exploration for oil in protected areas.

I firmly believe that we need to have a moratorium on offshore drilling to allow for us to have a rational discussion on the future of offshore drilling.

We need to put our resources to work to foster meaningful development, but always in a sustainable manner and always in the best interest of our national development.

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