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Belize Coalition for Natural Heritage Takes On Elrington For Dissing Offshore Moratorium
posted (September 20, 2017)
Last night on 7News, you heard Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington blast the entire concept of conservation and diss the idea of an offshore moratorium. He said he couldn't rationalize it in a country where there is so much need.

Here's how he put it to a gathering of UB students and lecturers at a Security Symposium on Monday:

Hon. Wilfred Elrington, Minister of Home Affairs
"We can't pay for hospital. We can't pay for education. We can't pay for schools, but we are not supposed to touch the petroleum. We are not even to find out what is there, because the attitude is don't touch it. I don't know why it's being left there. The history has shown that you can exploit petroleum. But we are not into find out what we have. Because somehow or the other that's going to hurt us. That's going to destroy the reef. In this day and age we have got to think for ourselves. Because if you are starving, but it is content first to starve so as to ensure that the fishes are there - that the manatees are going to survive, why the human beings are dying. I can't rationalize it."

Well today the Belize Coalition to save Our Natural Heritage fired off a response to Elrington's anti-conservation position. They say, quote, "It is indeed disheartening that...at a time when Belizeans are being asked to absorb the brunt of corruption induced austerity measures, that a Senior Minister of the Government of Belize would unilaterally dismiss the need for sustainable management of marine resources and publicly advocate for an inherently hazardous industry that has caused irrevocable damage to far less significant marine environments. These comments insult and disrespect the tens of thousands of Belizeans depend on healthy coastal and marine ecosystems every day….The timing of these statements is also callous, given that so many of our Caribbean brothers and sisters are still reeling from the devastation by some of the most intense hurricanes on record." End quote.

And making Elrington know that he stands isolated form his Prime Minister, the Coalition adds, quote, "The Prime Minister… has indicated to the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage that the legislation to enshrine an indefinite moratorium on offshore oil in Belizean waters at the next sitting of the House of Representatives; set for October 20th 2017."

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