Yesterday in the Senate, the Leader of Government Business Eamon Courtenay put laser focus on the land deal with the Washington based Nature Conservancy.
It's 236,000 acres for of tropical rainforest, purchased privately and set aside as protected. But - when the house had already been dissolved - the Barrow Administration signed the deal giving them a waiver on stamp duty and an exemption on the payment of land tax for 50 years.
Senator Courtenay called it a scandal, saying and the government will lose 10s of million of dollars over the 50-year - while noting that the transaction was handled by the former Prime Minister's firm, Barrow and Williams.
Today, territorial activist Will Maheia said the PUP is missing the forest for the trees:
Wil Maheia - Activist "I think that it is unfortunate that internationally known organization like the nature conservancy could be getting dragged in the mud the way I see it. I believe that is clear in the documents that the land was purchased for the people and government of Belize. It was private land, it wasn't even like national land and you know that a lot of people are giving away national land, this is no national land, this was land that was privately owned before it was sold to the nature conservancy, the nature conservancy cannot pack up this land and take it Washington, the land is for the people and government of Belize. Now the way I look at this land is the fact if the nature conservancy did not raise the funds, which I applaud them for buying the land, the land would then end up in some Mennonite hand or something like that and it would turn into agricultural lands which in my opinion is not the most beneficial thing for the land. The land complete the northern biological corridor. Look at the tax write off but at the amount of people that will be employed to manage this land not to mention that we could go around the world knocking our chest saying look, we are protecting nature, we are the lungs of Central America, we provide oxygen so the rest of Central America can breathe. While I agree with the government that maybe it could have been done in a different manner, Hugo Patt could have been more transparent about it, I think at the end of the day it is a good thing. The land is managed by a trust that I believe Dr. Elmer Kay might be the chair of this trust, I know she is on the board. Now she is a professor at the University of Belize, a well known scientist from around the world, Belizean scientist. You have Julie Robinson and other Belizean lady who is internationally known for their contribution to saving biodiversity. We are making a big deal out of something that is good not only for Belize but also for planet earth."
Maheia has called out conservation NGO's to speak up in defence of the deal. We note that the NGO Senator Osmany Salas was mute on the subject yesterday.
