But Placencia residents didn't wait on any government agents last month when they took direct action to reclaim their beach by removing rocks that were illegally placed on a shoreline, disrupting the natural movement of sand which would cause more erosion to occur along the beach. According to the residents leading the peaceful protest the rocks were placed there without proper environmental clearance by rogue developers with beach front properties. CEO Wade says she supports the passion of the community:
Beverly Wade, CEO, Blue Economy & Marine Conservation "The individual property had put in some measures, some structures to try and alleviate and relieve the erosion that was happening on that property. Apparently that effort was not permitted. And so the department of environment had instructed them that they should now remove what was put in there. The actual enforcement of the stop order my understanding is that there was a gap between that and it actually being done and that is where the community went down there to do it. Two things I see there: I very much appreciate the passion from the community and I think that Is what we need, in fact as Belizeans that's one of the things that I've always been proud of: we have strong ownership of our space. But I would want to encourage the communities also to coordinate and if need be to call the relevant authorities because what we don't want is the kind of situation where you have communities going in and just taking action within their own hands - and my understanding is that is what occurred there. And I go back to my original comment that I think that it is time for us to look at the issues more holistically and for us to put in that national policy to help and to address both developers, communities and all of us have a better understanding of how do we now help the situation."
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But Placencia residents didn't wait on any government agents last month when they took direct action to reclaim their beach by removing rocks that were illegally placed on a shoreline, disrupting the natural movement of sand which would cause more erosion to occur along the beach. According to the residents leading the peaceful protest the rocks were placed there without proper environmental clearance by rogue developers with beach front properties. CEO Wade says she supports the passion of the community:
"The individual property had put in some measures, some structures to try and alleviate and relieve the erosion that was happening on that property. Apparently that effort was not permitted. And so the department of environment had instructed them that they should now remove what was put in there. The actual enforcement of the stop order my understanding is that there was a gap between that and it actually being done and that is where the community went down there to do it. Two things I see there: I very much appreciate the passion from the community and I think that Is what we need, in fact as Belizeans that's one of the things that I've always been proud of: we have strong ownership of our space. But I would want to encourage the communities also to coordinate and if need be to call the relevant authorities because what we don't want is the kind of situation where you have communities going in and just taking action within their own hands - and my understanding is that is what occurred there. And I go back to my original comment that I think that it is time for us to look at the issues more holistically and for us to put in that national policy to help and to address both developers, communities and all of us have a better understanding of how do we now help the situation."