The residents of San Pedro Town are no strangers to development, whether it be the construction of new hotels or dredging equipment in their waters. But one particular development has the fishers of the Embarcadero area concerned. It's a large plot of land filled with mangroves right behind the area, but not only have some of the trees been destroyed, the lagoon outside of the land has been filled in. The fishers say that this project is affecting the area's fly fishing opportunities by chasing off the prized bonefish and tarpon. But is it too late to be saved? Courtney Menzies visited the area yesterday and has this story.
This area used to be part of the lagoon, but over the last few months, it's been dredged and filled with sand. The Ambergris Caye fishermen have been eyeing the development warily because they say as the land extends, the fish evacuate.
Roberto Bradley, President, Ambergris Caye Fishing Guide Association
"As you can see right now, it was planned to be only the lagoon inside that was supposed to be filled up and right now as you can see, they're stretching outside their property, which is going to be killing the rest of the remaining mangroves that we have here. They already damaged a nice portion of the lagoon where it was a habitat for bonefish, tarpon, all types of marine life, even crocodiles were in there. All that is done, it's gone, so they had to move out to find different places to live now. so it's affecting the livelihoods of fishing guides, of even people on the island right here."
Bradley says that, initially, the proposed development was for a casino, but now they're not sure what it's going to be. The fishers and residents believe there wasn't enough consultation.
Roberto Bradley, President, Ambergris Caye Fishing Guide Association
"We're not asking for development to stop, we're just asking to be sustainable, we want sustainable development right here on the island. We need the DOE to start doing proper assessments, not just be handing out EIA's to different developers left right and center. We need consultations. You come down here, you speak with the locals, the associations, different party leaders, and then afterwards we can come together and see what benefits the island better. A lot of it is happening, they're killing the mangroves, then afterwards we see on the news they're coming down here with new projects, getting grants to reestablish the mangroves, replant mangroves, so why are we gonna go backwards?"
And the line between development and sustainability is thin, but the area rep, Andre Perez says he's trying to balance on it. However, he says a lot of the land being developed now, including this patch of mangrove-filled land behind Embarcadero, was sold by the previous administration.
Andre Perez, Area Rep., Belize Rural South
"It's a very pristine piece of mangrove area there. When I got into government, I realized that it was recently sold, maybe 5 or 6 years ago. Privately owned and it's been sold twice. And it's subdivided into two big parcels, it's a total of 30 acres. That's what these very same people sold off when it should have never been sold. I am right now engaging with the owners, it's big owners, they own a huge property, I'm trying to negotiate with them to see if they can consider to leave that specific island entrusted to this community. Of course, there's nothing free, I'll have to engage with them, what else we can offer them, but it's important."
"We have to be balanced here. Development is happening. We cannot stop it, but we have to draw our line and that is the fine balance that I'm finding myself trying to dance. It's like a guy on a trapeze and having all of these ceramic vases in my hand, that's what I'm trying to do right now, but I'm doing it and I remain committed."
But, he may have already failed at that balancing act with this particular stretch of land, and the fishers affected by it.
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