The Belize National Unmanned Aircraft System Industry Association - which is an advocacy group for drone operators - issued a press release today stating that they have been trying to collaborate with the Department of Civil Aviation so that manned and unmanned aircraft can coexist safely, but they have not received responses from the department. According to the release, BNUIA believes the department is trying to rush through the process; instead of meaningfully consulting, they are trying to implement restrictions that will damage Belize's drone industry. In addition, they issued a Freedom of Information request over 30 days ago and still have not gotten a response.
Today, we spoke with the president, who explained more.
Will Moreno, President, BNUIA
"We've been attempting to reach out to the Belize Department of Civil Aviation to meet with them, go over the entire document, line by line to make sure we get this thing right, we have to get this thing right. In Belize they say we have a unique air system, but if we had a unique air system then it would be in their best interest to go through it with the stakeholders and all the drone operators to let them know this is what we need to do. Belize again like they say is unique, but what makes it so unique? That's what we've been asking because there's other Caribbean countries and other Central American counties that has airspace similar to ours. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, what we need to do is to come to common sense regulations that works for Belize."
"What we had requested in the FOIA is basically statistical data that would have proven from the BDCA why they are being so strict and why the regulations are being overly stringent on the drone operators because if you look at the actual document and i've said it in my last interview, the legalese or the verbiage of it is so, the regular person will not understand it, it needs to be understandable. If you can't understand it, how can you follow a rule that you can't understand."
"There's so many industries right now that are utilizing drones, from mining to GIS which is mapping, they're doing it for archeology, they're doing it for conservation, they're doing it for real estate, they're doing it for tourism, for cinematography and so many others, I can't miss agriculture. It is very important in many of these industries and there's so many industries that have yet to use drones. Belize is behind the curve when it comes to using drones but putting or implementing regulations that basically ground the drone operators is not in the best interest because they don't have the technology, they don't have the manpower, they don't have the enforcement, to put something in place and follow up with the enforcement of it."
The Association has issued a notice of a FOIA breach to the CEO of Civil Aviation, BDCA and other ministries.
