Late last year, the government made the controversial decision to conduct seismic surveys in Belizean waters. When conservation groups like the Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage, and other public agents got wind of this, they pressured to government to halt all operations until the public was properly consulted on the matter. Well, those consultations were scheduled for this month, but they were cancelled two weeks ago. There has been no word as to why the consultations were cancelled or if they will be rescheduled, and some people are tired of waiting. On Saturday some San Pedro residents organized a peaceful march and forum in the town's Central Park. The event's organizer, Kristin Marin, told us more...
Kristin Marin, Event Organizer
"It began with a peaceful walk, so 100 community members joined us and we use posters created by high school students in the week. So we had 175 students come together and create posters for the event. So we carry that around town inviting people to join us in the park and once we got back to central park we created a no oil sign on the beach which I said to you and we got everyone hyped up and felt the momentum and the energy and from there we had a speaker system and we just shared information on the updates of oil concessions from 2010 all the way up to now when the recent consultations on the multi-beam surveys were cancelled and then we just shared information on the committee that's forming and future events that we're planning."
Alex Courtenay, 7News
"So we know that you guys were giving out information, but was there discussion with the members of the community and the people who attended?"
Kristin Marin, Event Organizer
"Yes, for example we got the SJCJC came up and talk about how youths can get involved. I think for the future we want to get more tour operators and tour companies to come out. But as you know public presentation in Belize is a bit difficult. But we did have a good crowd just for our first event organized."
Alex Courtenay, 7News
"And what was the feedback like of not only the people who attended and were a part of the forum and the march but also the people around who may have passed by and see what was happening."
Kristin Marin, Event Organizer
"So how it started, we were out there from 8am before the march and we had about 500 t-shirts and we have people from the dive shops that came and said 'you know we want to leave a donation and get a t-shirt even though we have work,' and they were sharing their views on offshore oil and how we can go about sharing information and all of that. So the 500 t-shirts really went out to all the community members. We raised $1,000 just from that. So we are really getting good feedback even though not everybody who wanted to attend could have come out for the event."
"We are planning to do hopefully a debate, we have movie night that encourage discussion after. We really want to get some debate up there about why is the government even considering this. It has to be some pros and how do we combat those are share relevant information. So that's were we are headed now."
Marin says that other forums and consultations are in the works, not only for San Pedro, but in cities, towns and villages throughout the country.
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