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Well, today the Minister of Forestry Lisel Alamilla held a press conference to give her side of the story – first on the SATIIM issue – saying they made a commitment and didn't stick to it.

Hon. Lisel Alamilla - Minister of Forestry and Fisheries
"I sent a letter to SATIM on June 5th - again highlighting that we need to standardize this, he responded on June 9th and stated on his letter 'SATIM would be committed to signing the co-management agreement on June 28th, 2013' - it says 'SATIM requests your consideration to the date stated above to sign the co-management agreement as it would be impossible to sign before the 28th of June because of the ongoing organizational reform which included re-organizing programmes and strengthening internal financial controls and procedures. We are certain that we will conclude this important exercise on June 26th.' - this is what SATIM wrote to us."

Gregorio Choc - Executive Director, SATIM
"The Forestry Department is pressuring SATIM to sign a co-management agreement that is prejudicial to SATIM's interest. We have recently tabled that decision to the general assembly of the communities buffering the Sarstoon Temash region and they have rejected the agreement."

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"SATIM has never come seriously forward - I think they've been playing games and just been dragging this along to say that they are going to sign and I don't believe that they have any intentions of signing this. They could still come back and say that they want to enter into co-management agreement with the Government of Belize. The Government of Belize doesn't have the capacity to manage these protected areas and this government recognizes that and recognizes that the partnership with the NGO's is important for us to achieve our conservation goals."

Gregorio Choq
"And I want to tell the Forestry Department and the Government of Belize that SATIM will continue to manage and protect the National Park because it is in our interest and the interest of the Belizean people."

Jules Vasquez
"How do you interpret the defiant statement made by Greg Choc - the executive director of SATIM that regardless of what that letter says - that they are barred from executing their former duties in the park. That in fact they will continue to do all their activities in the park because the park falls within their ancestral lands and the Supreme Court authorized them to occupy and have a certain domain over those lands."

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"Well I think that is something for us to get advice from the solicitor general if in fact that is a real threat or an empty threat - we don't know if they indeed will do that. But if you want to talk about the land, Greg himself has explained to me that not the entire park falls under what would be considered community lands - it's only a portion of the Sarstoon Temash National Park."

Gregorio Choc
"We had some agreement, however we have understood that this was tabled before Cabinet and they altered the agreement. They altered the agreement to extend that majority of the co-managers, whose agreement has expired, refused to sign this new co-management agreement because it's harmful to the organization and its members."

Edilberto Romero - Chariman, APAMO
"We reached an agreement with them and the government again took it and changed it and now they want us to sign it and we told them we weren't going to sign it because there were major changes that were affecting the protected areas."

Reporter
"Did Cabinet make any adjustments in their absence or to the agreement that they signed or said that they would sign on to?"

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"Of course! When you take something to Cabinet it is within the Cabinet's right to say 'this is conditions in which we are interested in engaging in this agreement with XYZ'; they have a right to do that."

Edilberto Romero
"There are two APAMO members that have signed the Cabinet endorsed co-management agreement and it is because of that kind of pressure. The other co-managers are still struggling and still need the funding but they realize that by signing those co-management agreements that you are getting yourself into a huge liability."

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"Edilberto does not manage a protected area that needs a co-management agreement."

Reporter
"Minister, did you receive a letter from APAMO on May 7th saying that they do not agree to this signing"

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"Yes, and my CEO met with them and entered into a dialogue and the report from my CEO was that he explained - they had a very good conversation. But what my CEO received was not was discussed but nonetheless that is another matter. Which co-manager is not in agreement with the co-management agreement that was sent to them? Because I have a long list that I shared with you earlier of co-managers that have already signed on and that are members of APAMO - that have signed on."

Reporter
"How many are left to sign on?"

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"I don't know how many are left."

Jules Vasquez
"It's about 15 though"

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"Yes but I am listing to you - Yaz Che, Friends for Conservation, SEA, STAKA, Rio Blanco, Rancho Dolores, SACD, Gales Point, TIDE, CSFI and several others have committed to sign."

Gregorio Choc
"The government for example can engage and sign contracts with third parties without the consent of the manager."

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"Government is saying if we want to grant concessions in the area - we will entertain concessions in the area but they have to fall under the management plan and what is allowable legally."

Reporter
"But will the co-managers have a say?"

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"They will be consulted - yes."

Edilberto Romero
"When they say legally - yes we have legal expectations and there are certain rights that need to be respected as co-managers."

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"I think that we have to understand that co-managers do not own these protected areas - they are managing these protected areas on behalf of the Government of Belize. Tomorrow the Government of Belize can decide that this framework is not achieving the goals that the government wants for its protected areas. This is what we're failing to understand - we are acting and pretending that these are private lands that belong to TIDE, that belongs to Belize Audubon Society, they are not - they belong and are the responsibility of the Government of Belize to manage."

Edilberto Romero
"How can the government say 'you cannot access and protect that' - the government should be saying 'thank you for protecting those areas.'"

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"And the NGO's who are involved in co-management need to recognize that these areas do not belong to them. They belong to the people of Belize and the Government of Belize has the responsibility to at the end of the day - deliver on the conservation goals of this country."

Edilberto Romero
"The co-management agreement, endorsed by Cabinet is a temporary agreement - it doesn't have any legal framework so to us it is an illegal co-management agreement that they want us to sign. Why? Because the legislation does not allow for it yet, two the Forestry and Fisheries Department does not have the legal mandate to sign co-management agreements."

Jules Vasquez
"In fact you all are entering agreements for which there is no counterpart legislation and that the agreement you all seek to enter into have no legal teeth."

Hon. Lisel Alamilla
"It is true - there's no legal standing for co-management agreements but then we all agreed that we would maintain status quo because there is no legal standing for the NGO's to manage the protected areas either."

Notable is that Alamilla said that APAMO is the one who requested formal co-management agreements at her first meeting with them. She says they had asked for co-management terms of 100 years; the final agreement sets it at five years.