AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Environment Meeting for North Ambergris Caye 3,000 acres sale

I like this idea.
but, I don't agree with the bipartisan angle. There is a single interest in government trying to pull this off before the elections get them ousted and they can't sell it.
so why protect them with a bipartisan protest?
Also if you think the sale is to raise money for government your being naive. What politician would go against the popular opinion to close a multimillion dollar deal and not be getting a huge personal monetary kick back?

True...but I think it's to let the government and more importantly, the investors know that we are willing to do anything (legal) to stop this. With the press there, these mysterious foreigner investors might realize that this development is not going to be as easy as buying the land from the government. San Pedro is going to have something to say about this...

agreed and its not outside the realm of possibility the sale could be reversed after we get current bad guys out of office.
I'm going to send my white shirt and pants to the laundry.

I'm posting this here because I got 'Blogger error' a couple of time when I tried to access Tacos Girls page.

Town Meeting
I was not able to go to the town meeting last night so I will leave you with what Rebecca had to say about it...

The San Pedro Business Association called a town meeting last night to discuss the potential sale of 3,000 acres of North Ambergris Caye by the Belizean Government. I attended and this is what I learned. A few weeks ago, the dereservation and sale of a chunk of Bacalar Chico was reversed but now it seems the government is looking elsewhere (outside of the national park) to complete this transaction with foreign investors. So far, the govt has been vague about which land they are looking to sell, but those at the meeting seem certain that it is the "Pinkerton Estates", land that was set aside years ago for infrastructure and for the future generations of San Pedro.

The sale price quoted ($4000bzd/acre) is a fraction of the market price which was speculated at hundred of millions USD at the meeting. Many (including the Mayor) asked, ..."if the government needs this money so badly, why don't they give the people of San Pedro the right to buy land that should be theirs" for hospitals, businesses, houses, facilities and schools for an island that has thousands and thousands of children and is growing every day.

It was tentatively decided that there will be a shut-down of businesses on Tuesday morning for 9-12. They asked that the people of San Pedro and its visitors wear white and join hands in the streets to protest this sale and to let the investors know that we are willing to fight this sale in every way possible. This will be a completely non-political event...no UDP, no PUP, just neutral white. Reef Radio will be broadcasting more information all week.

There is speculation that there is an additional 5.000 acres, (supposedly outside the reserve area, in the Pinkerton Estates), whose sale is also being negotiated by the government. No one is certain where either of these parcels lie as no map or diagram has been presented showing either area.

Thanks Elbert that should be resolved now I accidentally hit save draft instead of publish when I added on last bit to that post.

The Mayor believes that she should be able to pinpoint the 3,000 and 5,000 acre tracts on a map some time later today. If we can post the map we will.

The other night while listening to the Hol Chan Marine Reserve folks talk it came out that neighboring /nearby ares of sea turtle grass beds and mangroves need to be protected as well as whats in the reserve boundarys because destroying those that are near the reserve will have a negative effect on the reserve, so the HCMR folks want to protect areas near Hol Chan as well. The same logic would apply to The Bacalar Chico Reserve.

The shut down and protest will be on Tuesday from 9-11am. Make sure everyone signs one of the petitions that will be past around town over the next few days.

The protest regarding the 3,000 and 5,000 acres is not about the Bacalar Chico reserve area.

The shut-down was mentioned on last night's news.

http://www.7newsbelize.com/index.shtml#5

This link doesn't work, it just leads to the latest news each day.