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The press also asked Heredia about a proposed development that has been approved for Cayo Rosario.

That's a 10-acre island off the northwest coast of San Pedro.  According to island environmentalists, and tourist industry stakeholders, this type of development will destroy the rich natural habitat of the wildlife that call Cayo Rosario home. They also point to the dredging that needs to be done to install more than 80 over-the-water structures, which the developer has proposed for the Caye.

The bottom line is that there are residents of San Pedro who don't want this project to proceed any further and opponents have organized themselves into a group call the Ambergris Caye Citizens for Sustainable Development.

They've been attempting to lobby their town council, the relevant Government agencies, and the conservation community for support. They've even launched their own website defendcayorosario.com.

So, they're well organized, and it seems that they have an ally in their Area Representative, Manuel Heredia Jr. Today, he told us that he wasn't able to give much input at the initial stages, but he is trying to intervene where he can:

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - Area Rep, Belize Rural South
"Yesterday the minister of the environment and myself spoke and I told him about what the concern of the tour guides and Hol Chan marine reserve. We have agreed that next week, we will take an onsite visit of the island, analyse what we're supposed to do, what is the maximum we are supposed to accept because at this point if I told you - I think last week, they believe the number over the water structure is exaggerated, it's too much. I personally believe knowing the island, that if you put those 42 over the water structures on the island itself, it will not fit over there. So why approve so many over and I must reiterate again, that I had very little participation in the decision making of the approval of this, which I believe as the area rep and as the minister of tourism since it is a tourism project, I should have been consulted a lot more."

Reporter
"Despite the approval from NEAC, you're saying that your intervention can see maybe the green light being reversed?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"I cannot speak for them but what I can say there is no government that likes a confrontation with any group or any community. So in this case they have threatened they will go the numbers of what they are whenever the first pile is being put that they will go in numbers to oppose it and that is what I told the minister of environment that we must go over there and if we can do our part to make sure that we can avoid this unnecessary thing, then let us do so."

Reporter
"Even at the risk of losing the project itself?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"My people come before anything else you know."

Cayo Rosario is also a part of the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. This was brought up by the Ambergris Caye Citizens for Sustainable Development in their letter to Mayor Daniel Guerrero. That letter reminds the mayor that Belize's Barrier Reef system was just recently removed from UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites in danger.