There is controversy in Belize over the government’s granting of concessions for terrestrial oil exploration. In particular, Maya leaders in the Toledo district are strongly opposed to proposals for drilling on indigenous lands and in the Sarstoon-Temash National Park. There has been extensive coverage of the matter in the Belizean media over the past several weeks; here are a few excerpts from a couple of recent articles that seem to summarise the issue quite neatly:
Maya activist and environmentalist Greg Ch’oc had the support of the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage and the Association of Protected Areas Management Organizations (APAMO) at a press conference held in Belize City Tuesday morning, at which he made an ardent appeal to Prime Minister Dean Barrow to reason with them to revisit Government’s policy of permitting petroleum exploration across the entire length and breadth of Belize, including protected areas, which comprise 26% of national territory.
The issue has come to the fore after the Prime Minister said in recent media interviews that drilling could proceed in Toledo on the concession area for which US Capital Energy, a US-based company with operations in both Belize and neighboring Guatemala, has a contract.
However, Ch’oc argues that whereas the government has a contract with the oil companies, it also has a contract with the people of Belize—one that is just as valid and binding.
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The Government’s insistence to allow drilling inside the Sarstoon Temash National Park (STNP) in the Toledo District—which could happen as soon as August, according to Prime Minister Dean Barrow—will inevitably lead to a further fallout between the Barrow administration and the Maya of Toledo, who have joined forces with opponents to drilling inside protected areas, and who have issued a public declaration that drilling on what they deem to be their ancestral lands would be both illegal and in violation of a court injunction granted in 2010.
Government has no intention of stopping petroleum exploration onshore, especially not in the Sarstoon Temash National Park, managed by Greg Ch’oc’s organization, because geologists have said that it is perhaps the area with the highest oil potential in Belize, Barrow told the press at his quarterly press conference Tuesday. “That position will not change…” he insisted.
Barrow said that US Capital Energy Limited (a company whose parent company is registered in the British Virgin Islands, and which also has interests in Guatemala) is expected to start drilling within the next 6 to 9 months. “Drill they will,” Barrow commented.
The Maya declare that the lands upon which Government has issued blanket concessions to drill are a “sacred trust.”
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On Wednesday, the MLA and the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA) asserted that there is no clearance for oil drilling in the Toledo District.“Since the Sarstoon-Temash National Park is made up of lands used and occupied by Maya villages, it is illegal for the government to allow drilling to go ahead in the park, at least until those lands have been demarcated and titled,” the statement said.
It explained that on June 28, 2010, the Supreme Court issued a specific injunction which, in effect, put the cuff on the government, barring it from undertaking any activities that could be deemed to have an adverse effect on “the existence, value, use or enjoyment of the lands located in the Toledo District, occupied and used by Maya villagers,” without the informed consent of the Maya.
This prohibition, said the MLA, includes concessions, permits and contracts.
Also of interest from other news sources: Belize: Maya leaders concerned about drilling for oil on lands, Maya leaders against oil drilling in Toledo district and Are Belize’s lax oil laws a prospector’s “Paradise”? Belize.com provides a concise history of oil exploration and production in Belize.
[Photo: via paxgaea.com]
