In the past week, the furor over the Puerto Azul development seems to have been dialed down somewhat - after the Prime Minister made it clear that the project is just a concept, which still has to go through all the stages of regulatory and political approval. And then, on Saturday, the media went to the caye to see that, so far, nothing has happened with Northern 2 or Sandbore Caye.
Today Amanda Burgos, of the Belize Audubon Society - which has endorsed letters objecting to the development - told the media that they do take some measure of comfort in the Prime Minister's declaration, yet they still want some involvement in the vetting process:..
Amanda Burgos, Executive Director - Belize Audubon Society
"Yes it is a degree of comfort but also we want to be informed in the process and as the steps are taken."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, a lot of these big companies are opposed to what Mike Singh likes to call a "public negotiation" - if they have a project for whatever confidentiality or reasons, they might not want all the details constantly ventilated in the public."
Amanda Burgos
"It is up to the Cabinet subcommittee to determine how much information they are willing to share, but I do think they should be some transparency. We should know the criteria, the methodologies that are being used in the assessment."
Geovannie Brackett, reporter
"Does you and the other environmentalist have an idea to what scale a project should be out there?"
Amanda Burgos
"There was a resort out there and I think something perhaps you could do more. There is land available on that island but it has to be considered within the confines of what's there and what kind of damage you will impact and you want to see something responsible, something that won't destroy the entire island in the process. Of course if they downscale and there is logistical issues with the island, I mean it's a 25 minute flight, but it's a 2 hour boat ride on a good day. On a bad day it's up to 4-5 hours, so the logistical feats I think are something that need to be considered in the whole factor; evacuation routes, emergency.... there is a lot of little concerns that we have. You mention the beautiful jewels and the patch reef and that really is some of the bigger concerns with that area."
The developers' local representative says that the plan which shows the runway on the reef was wrong - and they do not plan to put a runway on the reef. He says however, that they may wish to transpose some reef structures. That sounds highly "iffy" - but he says his principals are retaining an international environmental consultancy to assess the viability of this proposal.
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