Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage elects executive council
LoveFM – On June 8, World Oceans Day, a group of organizations and concerned individuals formed the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage. The ultimate goal of the Coalition is to get a ban on all offshore oil drilling and a ban of all oil exploration and exploitation in protected areas. This week members of the Coalition met to elect an Executive Council which is being chaired by Geovanni Brackett of COLA.
Geovanni Brackett; Chairperson, COLA
“We decided that we needed the head, someone to chair and also we needed that executive structure that will facilitate the direction for this coalition because if you have notice it has grown at a very rapid pace. So we needed to start put into place the different mechanisms to allow it to function effectively. That executive is made up of a Chairperson, COLA, and I am the designated representative from COLA and we have two vice-chair APAMO (All Protected Areas Management Organization) and Oceana Belize. The chairperson from APAMO is Edilberto Romero and the Oceana Belize representative is Mrs. Audrey Matura-Shepherd, the Secretary is Belco and the representative from there is Candy Gonzalez and the Treasurer is from the Belize Audubon Society’s Anna Hoare.”
Brackett said they hope to engage in dialogue with representatives of the Government of Belize soon.
Geovannie Brackett
“We have written the Government, the Prime Minister specifically and we were directed to the Minister of Natural Resources. That communication is in progress and we are gearing up to have a meeting scheduled which is coming up sometime in the next week or two. There needs to be a discussion or beginning of a dialogue between ourselves and the GOB primarily because they may see our position as extreme likewise we may see there position as extreme being just for Belize. Also if we continue to go on this path on what I would personally describe as an unregulated industry or industry that is growing and if it continues in this stretch there are serious implications. But the dialogue needs to start and that is what we plan to do. We have been conducting several consultations in Caye Caulker, San Pedro and spoken to several unions and spoken to Rotary in Belmopan and that type of thing is continuous. We will go into different neighborhoods, we have already made t-shirts. We are collecting petitions as is right now.And so we are even planning to do other activities to inform the public whether it be thru public service announcements and so forth, to utilize all mechanisms to keep them informed of the movement of the petroleum industry particularly Offshore drilling, the risks and while we are promoting a ban on oil exploration in protected areas. So we are doing both consultations and other various forms of awareness campaigns.”
Brackett says over 40 groups have joined the Coalition.
