AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Environment Over 100 workers of South Beach protest

There are people way more qualified than me to answer your questions but I will give it a start.

1. Good idea not to get me mad at you. LOL
2. This area is so important as it is the mangrove nursery area for Hol Chan Marine Reserve.
3. This group is looking at all developments and committed to upholding the laws of Belize. Dredging on the west side of the island will not create silt that will drift onto the reef. However, digging out Mangroves is still against the law.
4. The people of this group are San Pedranas. Billy Leslie is a full time dive instructor/operator and president of the Tour Guide Association. Mito Paz is in charge of Green Reef. These and many other have made many trips to this area BY BOAT! There is no solid ground - it is wet land.
5. I don't know when the last time any one went to Marco Gonzalez but it is on the only solid piece of ground in that area and these folks have lived here all their life and know the area well.
6. WALK ACROSS - I don't think any of them can walk on water - YET! LOL This area is teaming with fish and birds but Jeff Pierce's paid ecologist said there was not life here.
7. I only know where one of the group lives - it is by the high school. Maybe someone else can find the answers to this.

I'm glad you are asking the right questions. I hope you are open to hearing the right answers. As one of the co-vice chairman said at the meeting a week ago. As we grew up everything that wasn't solid land we called "Swamp.' We called the lagoon swamp, mangrove islands swamp, everything that you could not walk on we called swamp. We need to change that.

I am VERY open to correct answers.

Let me ask a couple of rebuttal questions now.

How could anyone know or guarantee that slit from dredgeing on the west side esp. in the currently proposed or under development sites to the south-west of town will not make it's way to the reef. Have you swam in Boca Chica before? Let me tell you, that current can be impressive at times.

Aren't some of the west side developments on "wet lands"?

Do mangrove and wild life live on the west side?

Wouldn't it be nice to have the option to walk to the Marco site?
Wouldn't that be another "sustainable" tourist attraction?
While working on my property I have had more than one set of tourists stop and ask directions to the site. I just point toward the brush and say "good luck, I couldn't get to it even with my GPS".

Who gets to decide what businesses / developments are "sustainable"?

There's an "ice cream shop" in town that I visited last week. I asked for strawberry but the worker informed me that they had only one flavor. That doesn't seem very sustainable to me but it's was and I guess still is open.

It just seems unjust to sell land to an individual but then tell that individual they can't build on their own land. If the town, central government, local people wanted this area to be a preserve then they should have purchased it and designated it as such.

Does this group prefer to see no further developments of any type?

Has the group proposed a "reasonable" alternative to the currently proposed SBB?

I quoted reasonable because once again you come to "who gets to decide what is reasonable?".

Precisely. Why don't you contact Mito Paz at Green Reef or Billie Leslie at Tuff-e-Nuff for an authoritative explanation from someone who knows and understands what the issues are?

As to why people can't do whatever they want with property they own, the answer is simply that it isn't in the public's best interests and a political decision was made long ago that there would be restrictions placed. This general policy must have been well known to the purchasers of that property, as it's standard in any country that I've ever visited. The detail of those restrictions depends on local circumstances, as in any other country.

As to why the SBB area is particularly sensitive, ask the gentlemen above. But a simple glance at a map shows that it's right on top of Hol Chan and it is disingenuous to hold out that there won't be a significant effect.

Why don't you attend one of these meetings, listen to the arguments and watch whatever information they screen, and ask the acknowledged local experts your questions? They are not rabble-rousing special-interest group meetings, but are intended to inform the general public. Yesterday's was attended by our Minister for Tourism, no less, not pontificating from the high table but sitting in the audience and listening/watching with the rest of us.

Your final point. It is not up to this group or any other to develop or propose commercial ventures that any individual might consider. It is merely to prevent an initiative by any individual or business that seems inappropriate and against the public interest.

I'd love to go to the meetings but unfortunately I'm in Mississippi working.

I didn't say people can do whatever they want with their land. There are always limitations / requiremnets to build anywhere.

This land was sold to a developer with the intent to develop it.

It was never part any reserve that I know of. If I'm wrong on the reserve issue then please prove me incorrect.

Sorry, I added a final clause after you posted.

Regardless of when, why or how the land was sold and whatever purpose was stated or not stated, public policy must take precedence. The land is not in the Hol Chan reserve, at least I don't think it is, but it does border it. In other countries such as the UK and US a protected reserve can and often does include privately owned land. That land can then be freely used by its owner so long as certain lines aren't crossed. Seems to me eminently sensible.

If you aren't here, why don't you write to Mito Paz and ask him for his views and his reasons for holding them? His is one of the most authoritative voices here.

Give me his email I'll do so.

One more question for you.

How close to Hol Chan is "too close for development"?

If protection of Hol Chan is the exclusive reason to be anti-SBB then one would also be anti-development of ANY type ANYWHERE on A.C., C.C., C. Chap., and any other reef boarding islands. The polution / chemicals from boats, motors and people is undisputedly harmful to the reef.

My main point from all this typing is "why this particular development?". Why was it ok to build any of the condos on the reef side? Why is ok to continue to bring barges into the reef side? Have you seen the silt that is kicked up every time a barge docks no less than 50 yards from the reef? Did you witness the sludge kicked up in Scuba Lady's front yard this Sat. AM when a sand barge got grounded and repeatly tried to motor itself free? Think that sludge went to the reef only a football field away?

Why were there no "green reef" or anti-SBB protestors there to cry foul on this barge and this development?

Harriett why weren't you out there yelling at this boat and protesting this development in your own yard?

Do you get my point?

Short sometimes we agree!

You can find Green Reef's website by googling it.

Mito Paz, Green Reef
100 Coconut Drive, San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize
Phone: (501) 226-2833 Fax: (501) 226-2766
[email protected]