AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Environment DRILLING FOR OIL OFF AC? NOOOOOO ......... !!!!!

Will Rural South Minister join San Pedro mayor against oil exploration?

The Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage has garnered support and membership from environmental groups as well as major stakeholders in industries that can be affected by an oil spill. The call to ban offshore drilling has sparked vocal responses at meetings held in Caye Caulker and San Pedro by Oceana, one of the founding members of the coalition. The National Trade Union Congress and the Belize Tourism Industry Association, two powerful organizations, were joined by San Pedro's Mayor, Elsa Paz when she joined the coalition. But the person most environmentalists and BTIA's president Dionne Chamberlain, were hoping to join the coalition is Tourism Minister and San Pedro resident Manuel Heredia. Heredia is obliged to support his party as well as the electors of Belize Rural South. News Five asked Heredia this evening, which voice has his attention.

Manuel Heredia, Area Representative, Belize Rural South
"Even though I am a part of government, I still consider myself a fisherman and I still love the reef. I have fished the reef so many years and I see how beautiful it is. We have been looking at all the options, agreements, contracts that are there' looking at what is happening internationally with this particular issue in the gulf and I can assure you that at the end of the day we will come up with a solution that will be in the best interest of the tourism industry. If it means to say that there is anything to cause damage to our reef, definitely I will be the first one to say I'm not riding with that. I feel that our industry comes first, as I mentioned in the beginning. The Tourism industry is a priority to this government. If the oil or the drilling will affect that industry I'm sure that we will make sure that we put measures and that we do whatever it takes to address the situation."

Jose Sanchez
"I believe the mayor feels the pulse of the people and is saying no to offshore drilling. I understand that there is a strong possibility on Monday she will be going on one of Oceana's tours of the BP oil spill across the gulf. She strongly believes in that. Do you think there is a possibility that you would also show solidarity to that cause or that could also go against what the government is promoting in terms of business?"

Manuel Heredia
"Not really, I respect my mayor; I respect Miss Matura, I love her a lot. She is a very good friend of mine but as a government we can't just jump right away and say give into anything. We have to look at all the options and agreements as I mentioned before. If there is a contract that binds us then we have to find the right formula to how to get out of it. But definitely, we believe and I feel my colleagues will be with me that if it is something that will affect the reef or will affect the livelihood of our people, definitely we will not go with it."

News Five

It would be great if Jr. would do some research himself on this subject. He would do well to tour the Gulf with Ms. Elsa. He appears to echo the party line. I do not believe that he understands the importance of this bio-system nor its fragile nature. This is not about the reef being beautiful. It is about the inevitable spill and the inability to contend with it and what will happen to our economy if we do have a accident that impacts our reef. My research has showed that an oil spill with only 24 hr exposure causes severe damage to coral and when mixed with dispersants it is lethal to coral. I have found out that the containment booms will not work in 3-4 foot seas which are common off shore as we all know. I have not found anyone who can tell me how we could cope with a spill considering these facts. Additionally where it goes would be based on the vagrancies of the wind and would be very difficult to deal with in a timely fashion even if the necessary technology existed.
I started out neutral in this and through my research have decided the hazard is far greater than pro-oil would like us to believe and the reward is probably much smaller than the government would lead us to believe. I see no statement from Jr. concerning Marine Protected Areas or World Heritage Sites.
Jr. appears to be more concerned with rights of oil companies and land speculators instead of what is best for San Pedro.
San Mateo, Reef Village, Sugar Caye, South Beach, GBE, SeaTrek and dredging the fishing habitats and allowing the mangroves to be cut out and condoning the croc feedings are evidence of his attitude.
I find it unlikely he will take a stand against his party leader regards of anything. I applaud Ms Elsa and the T.C. for their stand for San Pedro on this matter.
I have known and respected Jr. for many years and I am actually very surprised at his position as he stated that if the town was against it he would be against it as well. Personally I like him a lot and am very dismayed over this whole business over the last years of unregulated development degrading our environment and now offshore drilling.
I question his judgements on these issues as well as wonder why San Pedro gets nothing.
A $6 Million dollar face lift is not only wasteful in view of the conditions many in San Pedro contend with daily but also is not our "face" its is the other end. Now we will have 2 football fields and only one primary school. The priorities are wrong in my view.
We are destroying the very thing that brings tourists here and we have had a down turn over several years now, starting before the global economic crisis. We have no surveys of our visitors as to their views of our Island. The individual reports I have received from repeat tourists focus on the obvious deterioration of the environment and over-crowding of the town. They are appalled at the thought of offshore drilling here and question our good sense for even entertaining the idea.

Check out the summer issue of the ELAW Advocate which has news on Belize and the efforts of the Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage, as well as an update on Chevron and Ecuador case and more.

http://www.elaw.org/node/5441

Mayor Paz Continuous Struggle Against Offshore Drilling

Joins Oceana at Mississippi Gulf Coast

The Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage has found an important political ally in San Pedro's Mayor Elsa Paz. Paz was aboard the vessel chartered by OCEANA to tour the areas affected by BP's Deep Horizon spill and was joined by Hollywood celebrities on the gulf tour. At a brief press conference in the U.S., Paz was introduced by Ted Danson, actor and OCEANA Board member.

Mayor Elsa Paz, as Mayor of San Pedro has expressed grave concern about the impact that offshore exploration will have on her island community of Ambergris Caye.

"I bring greetings from my people of Ambergris Caye, Belize. I stand before you as a proud Belizean who today joined forces with OECANA with one common goal; to bring awareness about the harmful effects to our natural resources caused by oil exploration," stated Mayor Paz.

"My country, Belize, has the second largest living barrier reef in the entire world. This provides me the opportunity to learn from the experiences of those living with the impacts of oil drilling. With this firsthand information, I can relay it to my constituents, the realistic negative effects surrounding oil exploration. Unfortunately, the current situation regarding oil exploration in our country is being entertained by the government and my people are concerned about the impact this may have on our natural resources. San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye is my hometown. It is the place that saw my parents grow and that has seen me grow. We have come a long way from a humble fishing village to a number one tourist destination in the country of Belize."

Mayor Paz continued by saying that the residents of Ambergris Caye and Belize on a whole are distressed about this due to the dependency on tourism and the vital role the reef contributes to our economy. "The people are alarmed about the current situation of all waters being concessional for oil exploration plus the lack of governance, transparency and consultations regarding the future of our most valuable resource. This visit allows me to carry the message back to my country with the hope of enlightening those who have been blinded by the greed of allowing oil exploration to develop freely in our country," ended Paz.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd interviewed Actor Morgan Freeman about the situation in Belize and he became the most recent person to join the 'say no to offshore drilling in Belize' campaign. "I saw the map, it's dreadful, and it's awful. There is no government oversight in Belize," commented Freeman. "The government officials just say okay go ahead and do it and as you can see from this experience here, that could work out to be very, very bad for Belize. You have wonderful waters around Belize, you've got that reef, and you've got that wonderful ecosystem there. It's too fragile."

Nautica reaffirmed its commitment to Oceana by donating $100,000 to support the organization's upcoming deepwater exploration efforts near the Deepwater Horizon wellhead. Oceana will use cutting-edge science to help map the subsurface oil plume and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) capable of reaching depths of more than 3,200 feet and filming in high-definition to explore seafloor habitat areas that may have been harmed by underwater oil.

The organizations were joined by award-winning actors Ted Danson and Morgan Freeman as well as San Pedro (Belize) mayor Elsa Paz and New York-based Spanish model Almudena Fernandez and Oceana in Belize VP, Audrey Matura-Shepherd. (News Source: Channel 5)

Ambergris Today

From Ch 5 news-

And in related oil industry news, the government of Bahamas has suspended consideration of all applications for oil exploration and drilling in the waters of the Bahamas. The island nation's Ministry of Environment said that a stringent set of environmental rules would need to be put in place before it considered applications.

Drill Baby, Drill!

Out to roil the pot Rye?