On April the first of this year we told you about a dispute between the Department of the Environment and Luke Espat. The developer had allegedly encroached upon the Crooked Tree Nature Reserve while clearing the area for a crocodile park.
It had all the trappings of a dynamite story: an eminently well-connected local investor with a record of environmental violations going up against a Department of the Environment that seemed as if it had just about had enough of him. Well, all that promise didn't amount to much today court when Magistrate Earl Jones ruled on the matter of the Department of the Environment versus the Belize Crocodile and Reptile Breeders Limited.
Jones pointed to a 2002 Supreme Court decision which made it clear that an environmental impact assessment is not an indispensable prerequisite for a project to proceed, even though working without one may be illegal Jones continued by stating that the doe did not give the developer enough time to carry out an environmental impact assessment. With that, he ruled that the defendants had no case to answer because the time during which the offence took place could not be determined. The DOE has indicated that it will appeal the decision.
Related Story
. Developing Running Through Crooked Tree Sanctuary
