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Last night we told you about the Draft Petroleum Exploration and Exploration Guidelines. The 32 page document has been the subject of heavy criticism from Oceana and COLA – both sounding the alarm on what they believe is a lack of proper emergency planning and management of oil operations to ensure the protection of Belize's ecosystems.

The document is only a draft but these organisations are putting pressure on the government to make a critical changes. Today another organisation spoke out against the document. That is the Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage. Executive Director, Tanya Williams, came to our studios to discuss the implications the approval of this document may have on the economy and environment.

Tanya Williams - Executive Director, Belize Coalition

"The Zonation framework has been a process really started in 2011, so we've very long into this process of looking at where we should do oil and where we shouldn't do oil. In 2012 the coalition actually commissioned a technical person to do analysis and we came up with a document with recommendations which was presented to the government of Belize. Directly to the minister of energy and the minister of forest, fisheries and sustainable development. Key to those recommendations were wondering numbers when it comes to the offshore. Generally when you have all activities and you have critical ecosystems, they must be a buffer between those activities. The document did not present any buffers. This is deciding, this is going to be presented to cabinet and become law. It's guiding where we're going to do oil and where we're not going to do oil. If we have any major issues in saying the environment is not safe for us to oil in the offshore because as I spoke about the buffers and if they go ahead and say yes we're going to do it, it can cause major economic damage to the country, major environmental damage to the country and really change how we use these resources culturally."

Now in response to these criticism – more specifically to OCEANA's criticisms -the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology also issued a press release stating that the Geology and Petroleum Department has attempted to include Oceana in this discussion on the Zonation plan and exploration guidelines since September 2014 but Oceana never responded – According to the department only the Belize Coalition, APAMO and the Coastal Zone Management Authority Institute responded. The release continues by re-iterating that the document is only a draft and that there is no need for quote, "unhelpful sensationalising of an issue that is still undergoing stakeholder consultations."