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Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Sir Karim Hakimi's life is a rags to riches story. He was a poor Iranian blacksmith and now he is a multi-millionaire known for his chain, Hakim Optical, the largest privately owned chain in Canada.

10 years ago he fell in love with Belize, specifically the barrier reef, so he bought what was once marsh land on Ropewalk Caye within the Turneffe Atoll, and built this mega 400-acre resort called Belize Dive Haven. Its size and scale surpass the usual conservation - oriented, nature-based, eco-friendly resorts down south.

Sir Karim Hakimi, Owner, Belize Dive Haven
"It was swamp and insect, tremendous and no one could stand it even for hours. However, I had to raise the island by 4 feet, which took a couple of years, over a year, and so I started building. And so my dream was to turn that swamp into a paradise and have tourists come to enjoy the diving and this place and bring some foreign currency to this country."

"I built a beautiful hotel, beautiful swimming pool, one of the swimming pool is 260 feet long with the patio around it with the sitting with children swimming pool and adult swimming 6:32 pool."

"It is a huge place and eventually we have tennis court, we have a lot of entertainment, we have boats to rent, not only the boating but we have lots of other horses and lots of activities."

"I have been in a lot of luxury hotels and I thought that I want to make something in Belize that even in North America, Central American and South America doesn't exist. What I built isn't even similar to Cancun."

Well, Hakimi's dream resort hasn't been openly embraced by everyone, especially the Tutneffe Atoll Trust. The Trust is doing all it can to protect the Atoll but says developments like Belize Dive Haven Resort affect the livelihood of fishers in the area and pose a serious threat to the sustainability this pristine marine reserve.

Alex Anderson, Executive Director, Turneffe Atoll Trust
"Since it started there has been a lot of different things that have happened. The first instance when it started it was perceived to be a residential development, to date they still have not done a full environmental impact assessment."

But Sir Hakimi says when he began building his resort no one came to bother him about an EIA, even up until this day he doesn't even know what that is.

Sir Karim Hakimi, Owner, Belize Dive Haven
"First of all when I started there was another government. Every government authority came, they admired me, they thanked me for what I am doing because I am cleaning a swamp."

"Everything I did was perfect, I have never been discouraged, in fact I have been encouraged. Now when the government changed, then in the second government, then everyone start asking certain questions that didn't exist in the first place."

"So far no one seriously came to become an obstacle and they are asking a few things which is normal then we provide them, every one of them, I have a few people that I have to hire them because I live mostly in Canada and a lot of this stuff that they want is beyond me. I am an optical person, I am a scientist in line with optics."

Courtney Weatherburne, reporter
"So you are not sure what they are asking for when they ask for an environmental impact assessment?"

"I don't know what they are going to do with it, but they want this, they want that but what they are going to do with it is beyond my understanding but that is the law, we follow it."

But there seems to be a disconnect between the Turneffe Atoll Trust and the Department of the Environment to enforce the laws when it comes to development in this area.

Alex Anderson, Executive Director, Turneffe Atoll Trust
"I think a lot of times when you try to communicate with government agencies, these agencies are operating with lack of funding and so there are a lot of issues along the line. But we have noticed that recently we have been able to open a few channels, I think moving forward we will be able to communicate with them a lot more but what I want you to recognize is that it hasn't always been good in the past."

So as the Trust and the authorities work on strengthening their relationship, Hakimi will continue working on his resort, one he sees as nothing short of a blessing to Belize and one among several projects he believes hasn't gotten the appreciation and praise it deserves.

Sir Karim Hakimi, Owner, Belize Dive Haven
"All this stuff I did is unique, very unique but there is no one to really look into it and appreciate it and say thank you. I haven't had one person invite me for a cup of tea and say what you have done, no one did before and it hurt my feelings, that is why I am a bit emotional."

There is no official opening date for the resort as yet, but Hakimi says he expects to start advertising in the next 2 months.

We contacted Executive Director of the Turneffe Atoll Trust Alex Anderson to get his response to Sir Hakimi's comments. Anderson says contrary to what Hakimi says, the dredging has caused significant damage to the back flat reefs and to the permit fish habitat near the Caye. Anderson says the confusion began from the start when the project was advertised as a residential development which wasn't the case at all. According to Anderson, throughout the years DOE and the mining department had served stop orders during the construction but admits that there wasn't strict enforcement and proper follow through to get Hakimi to halt construction. But Anderson says all that is water under the bridge because the resort is pretty much complete and the damage has been done. Anderson says the focus now is to learn from the past slips ups. Anderson says going forward no developer will have it so easy to construct in the Atoll.