“I’ll take it up with NEAC” – that’s what CEO of the Ministry of Natural Resources Allan Usher told us today.
NEAC is the National Environmental Appraisal Committee and Usher is referring to the dredging of a number of islands in the South Water Caye World Heritage Site.
Usher says NEAC should never have approved the dredging. And while we admire his outrage, as CEO, usher probably didn’t get the memo which makes it established practice that even within reserves, NEAC does not review mining licenses – those are the sole domain of the Geology Department.
Usher told us about the NEAC inquiry as he extended on his explanation that his Ministry of Natural Resources knows nothing of who has bought or gotten tenure to the islands in the Pelican Caye Range.
But someone does have tenure to those islands and was issued mining licenses which authorised the dredging.
