"you are in fact dead wrong that this has not been an environmental disaster."

excerpt from a P E T I T I O N TO THE WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE :

INCREASED COASTAL DEVELOPMENT/TOURISM
a. Poor Land Use Practices

In addition to overfishing, aquaculture problems, and climate phenomena, the GEF/World Bank Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System Initiative identified problems in Belize with excessive and/or inappropriate coastal/island developments, inland resource use, land use, industrial development, port management, shipping, and navigation practices. Studies of the reef indicate that "it will be necessary to implement sound management to improve water
quality by controlling coastal developments."
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Removal of mangroves for housing and tourist development projects has resulted in declines in fisheries including lobster, reduced
protection from storms and hurricanes, reduced natural pollution mitigation, sediment runoff, and degradation of coral reef ecosystems and associated endangered species and marine
life.
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Other recognized problems in the area include alteration of habitat by hotel and marine construction, erosion of the shoreline by removal of seagrasses, mangroves, and
vegetation, and siltation problems on coral reefs from dredging and sand mining.
95
Poor land-use practices have amplified the impacts of hurricanes on the reef as well by causing massive amount of sediments to flow into the coastal waters. The added sedimentation increases the stress on corals during extreme ENSO events. Sedimentation
is hazardous to reef-building corals because it interferes with their feeding ability, decreases their access to the light, and may carry pathogens or absorbed chemicals.
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