The Draft Petroleum Exploration and Exploration Guidelines are on the discussion table again and Vice President of Oceana says that it should remain in the forefront. This morning Oceana along with other stakeholders held a press conference at the Biltmore to make their position on the draft guidelines publicly clear and also to engage the public. Vice President, Janelle Chanona told us today that these draft guidelines are simply insulting.
Janelle Chanona, VP - OCEANA Belize
"We walked publicly and then we were called sensationalists for doing so. But clearly we want to emphasize that our reaction was not an emotional one. We make our decision to say there remains a lot of work to be done on these guidelines from a scientific basis, from a legal basis, from an economic basis, from a cultural basis, historical basis. There are so many reasons why we have built such a case against offshore oil and why we continue to say no. There is no apparent effort to balance the risk from potential offshore oil activities to the sea and economy with the benefits that might accrue in the future. In short, the proposed guidelines do not comport with the law or with government's more fundamental obligation to manage our marine resources for the best interest of the Belizean people. These guidelines are most insulting, to the fact that through the efforts of the NGO community, OCEANA, the Belize Coalition, HRI and several other national based organizations. The community organized the largest to date public poll on this very issue, to the point where when we go out and we talk to our members, and I'm sure Tanya will talk about this. And on a national scope some people are like 'why are we still talking about this didn't we already say no?' So why is this not being reflected and I think that's a question that we certainly echo."
Although it states in a previous release sent out by the Ministry of Energy, Science and technology that "the Government of Belize continues to maintain a moratorium on the issuance of any new offshore petroleum exploration concessions", Chanona and her team say it is not enough and that there need to be more rigorous efforts to protect Belize's marine resources. The Ministry sent another letter to Chanona yesterday saying that they will review Oceana's comments on the draft guidelines and set up a meeting with them and other stakeholders to discuss the recommendations.
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