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Joined: Apr 2010
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There is nothing sweet about Sugar caye . It would be really interesting to find out who gave him this area to develop,which minister of natural resources from the past administration. Sugar Caye ,Sugar City Orange Walk hmmm.

Joined: Dec 2006
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The Mayor dictates to the Ambergris Caye Planning board so stopping projects like this or controlling them isn't going to come from them.
Third party intervention with some money for lawyers is the only thing thats going to stop them from doing it over and over until we change our elected government officials and make some new rules about their power to circumvent the process of approval.


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Joined: Mar 2011
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The issue of greenwashing is ever present and the answers to these questions are fairly obvious.

Quote


8. Does this new "innovative" seawall design justify clearing healthy mangrove wetland?

Hopefully no one anywhere is proposing to clear more mangrove merely to implement new techniques to mitigate the loss.

9. Is it more logical to preserve our existing healthy mangrove wetland and eliminate having to clear, dredge and fill these ecosystems that are vital to the livelihood of all our island community?

Clearly, the better environmental option is always preservation rather than mitigation.


The post quoted above is a substantive challenge to all properties being built on critical habitat at sea levels that are likely to be innundated by the end of the century.

The thread bifurcates there, however.

Whether or not this development should have happened, it is there. How it got there and its relative merits as a development deserve debate...

...as does the technical potential of the mitigation technique in question.

Has anyone ever seen this type of wall work anywhere else?

Joined: Dec 2006
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I like the term 'Greenwashing', good one! The worlds advertising seems to be targeting morons who would think painting a nuclear reactor green is helping the situation.
Likewise part of the publics disdain for this group of developers and Realtors is their condescending advertisements and public relations.
Does anyone believe this project of sea wall and mangrove planting is anything more than green paint?


White Sands Dive Shop
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Mangrove.org would like to post a response to the this thread

Because mangrove.org® was identified regarding design of the subject seawall, we want to correct misrepresentations regarding our involvement.

  1. Contrary to representations, mangrove.org® was not consulted on the design of this seawall.

  2. mangrove.org® does not endorse the construction of seawalls and our Patents Pending technology has been demonstrated as a viable alternative to the hardening of shorelines.

  3. The conceptual drawing in your article shows the mangrove root system growing down through holes in the seawall; however, the natural morphology of the mangrove tree is to develop a shallow root system forming nothing like what is shown in the conceptual drawing. This type of supposition is extremely na�ve and indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of the structure and biology of the species.

  4. Based on our international experience in mangrove reforestation, the design of the subject "seawall" is critically flawed and will not create tangible habitat as advocated by the developer.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Bob Riley
Managing Director
Tel: 321-431-6595
Mangrove Habitat Creation & Coastal Reforestation


Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,192
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And there you have it. Just developers wanting to destroy the environment and make more $$$$$ but everyone else already knew that.

Last edited by Windjammer; 05/30/11 10:17 PM.
Joined: Dec 2006
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A large part of my adverse relationship with these guys and others like them is the reputation they give Belize as cons, dishonest and disreputable dealings. Those that are abused blame Belize, it hurts the country as a whole.


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Without the mangrove covering Sugar Caye, the next "Keith" will completely devastate the area. This is a prime example of unsustainable development. I refrained from commenting on the seawall as I was waiting for other comments first. You will also notice the drawing of the seawall that was published in no way resembles the situation here. Green washing is the only polite term that describes this.
There is no way the seawall can work or even be installed. I say that with over 20 years experience. I applaud the effort but it is a wasted effort and the property should have never been cleared. It specifically protected the entire WASA and DFC areas from storms such as Keith which would now impact the area much more severely. The greatest risk to the island is a big storm cutting it in half along the southern coast. These types of developments along with others farther south greatly increase that risk. Keith almost cut the island in two and there had been no mangrove clearing or dredging in the area. Now with the extensive mangrove clearing and dredging of the lagoons the risk is greatly magnified. These types of areas are critical to the safety of the island and should be off limits to developers as in the old master plan.
The government issues permits to anyone who waves money or promises some economic benefit and we all pay the price. San Pedro is a classic example of unsustainable development. We developed past our ability to provide community services as well as beyond the economic limits naturally imposed by the amounts of visitors we receive. As a result we are much less attractive as an investment or retirement site than we were before the last period of "development". It is the responsibility of the government to protect us from such activities rather than encourage them as it has done in the past. We must reverse this trend and become again the environmentally responsible place we once were. We all used to take such pride in our environment and respected the DOE which also acted in a responsible fashion. We need to consider making our own environmental regulations if the DOE continues to be the lackey of government encouraged irresponsible developers. David Mitchell should be returned his $50,000 USD and the area should be restored to its previous condition.
It was the government itself that established San Mateo with no plan at all to make it livable. We must fix San Mateo as it is a health hazard for those that live there. How can we expect our brothers and sisters to live in such conditions? The material that they intend to dredge from the lagoon for Saca Chispas could be used to fix San Mateo. Time to take back our town.

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