Last night on the news we took you to the Southern Village of Gales Point Manatee, a small splint of land jutting out into the southern lagoon and under threat of erosion.
And while that may be the peninsula's most pressing issue, it's far from the only one.
Villagers are up in arms because a foreign company has plans to mine 15,000 acres on the other side of the lagoon - and they say it will despoil the natural beauty that has become synonymous with their historic village.
Cherisse Halsall went to the village on Saturday and listened to their concerns about that threat of widespread environmental degradation changing forever the face of Gales Point:
I'm here in the village of Gales Point Manatee, the creole capital of Belize where culture, Sambai, and the Christmas bram still reign supreme. But there's a threat to this village, a Vulcan invasion that could just alter it's very way of life.
But don't be too alarmed, we're not talking about this type of Vulcan but rather this kind.
A large aggregate mining company - based in Alabama - that is reportedly seeking to build a mine in the hills near the Village of Gales Point Manatee - like they have done in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.
They are operating in Belize under the name Caracol Holdings, and are reportedly looking at purchasing a 15,000 acre parcel of land for the purpose of mining.
But that purchase depends on the approval of an Environmental Impact Assessment from the GOB. It's something that village gyal turned movie star Indira Andrewin has taken a sharp stance against.
This weekend she took me on a tour around the place she called home to show me why a mining operation could prove disastrous for her community.
Indira Andrewin - Resident
"Growing up like I was really a tomboy and I feel like you have to be growing up in a place like this where nature is all around. I always tell everybody this, like I feel like I had the most perfect childhood because I had all these natural resources and I was so free like I would have wanted my child to experience the exact thing."
Indira's father, known affectionately in Gales Point as "Boombei" has just returned from Germany and he agrees with his daughter, telling me that in his experience a mine is a terrible thing to consent to.
Randolph "Bombay" Andrewin - Concerned Resident
"This is a mine thing and I know that mine thing is not good, mine thing is to destroy, for example they set up whatever here or in the hills they put some kind of instrument that will start to undermine everything and everything will go and be destroyed. So I don't agree with that any at all it's like destroying the nature. I can't talk for everybody because I don't know how everybody feels about it but when I heard about mine, I know what a mine is because I've been to places that have been destroyed by mines already and I wouldn't like to see Gales Point like that."
But a firm position against mining wasn't the village consensus in the beginning, with many villagers seeing it as a viable means of getting work in this low employment community.
But, that has quickly changed with Village Chairman Jason Altschaft telling us that those opportunities were only ever a ruse.
Jason Altschaft - Village Chairman
"They presented it to the village we had a big meeting and we had food and drinks and all the executives came and they told us what their plans were, they were gonna work on, Sugar hill mountain and they needed the limestone out of there for materials to go across the rest of the world. They promised lots of jobs for the village especially in the beginning phase. So we as a village council insisted that if they are going to be here that please use our people because we're hungry, they did that. They used, we had maybe 17 families, one December which made for a wonderful December here where we had ham and a nice bram, since then that was all they were suppose to do but they came back, they were using the village council, the second time they came back they didn't use the village council and they went to another area, that they didn't tell us they were going into and that started to make us have questions, what's going on? That turned into basically about four days before they started another drilling set on some other mountains they let us know. Before they let us do all the cooking for them and they didn't let us do that on the second round. Eventually they started bringing in other people from other villages and replacing us so basically as a village council we realized that this is not playing out the way we thought is was going to be."
And the sentiment form most of the villages is that they don't want to lose their hill
John Moore - Villager & Fisherman
"I don't want anybody to be passing the roads and say oh they took down this mountain from here and look. There was a meeting right outside here. They were explaining about the development on their side there but we don't know the negative on our side. They have to do maybe a lot of dynamite blasting and then how will they ship out this material, maybe they have to do a lot of dredging, maybe they have to use a lot of chemicals and stuff to do all these, and then we have all this runoff that will runoff into the lagoon, I'm a boat sports fishing guide, I don't want to see all my fish one day they all turn up then that's a done deal for me. I raised a concern and asked them if there were any environmental people around and they said no at this point. As we say our country is poor and we need investors but if they can come and invest in something else, I would be grateful."
Many would be because Gales Point sits between two large blocks of protected areas where jaguars thrive, connected only by the peninsula in the Southern Lagoon.
Luz Hunter - Tour Guide and Tour Guide Trainer
"I don't think you can find something like this anywhere else in the world. This is a unique hotspot and it's also home to some very important endangered species. You have manatees, hawksbill turtles, hicatee, tarpon, everything is here and this area is very fragile. Just a little bit of something out of whack can have a ripple effect and create chaos for all of these animals that are here right now because they are all dependent on specific things in an ecosystem and that's why they're here."
Kevin Andrewin - Turtle Man
"I don't really know their work plan and I don't really have or know the damage that those things can make but you see just in the water the seas turtle and the manatees love quietness no. I assume they would love quietness but if there are persons with that expertise, I would want, I am asking and begging them please send me that copy of the EIA."
We reached out to the company in question for comment and they told us, quote: "Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vulcan began to study the geologic and economic feasibility of creating an environmentally and socially sustainable limestone quarry on a portion of the White Ridge Farm property near Gales Point. Our studies are continuing. The company has not made a decision on whether to pursue the project, develop plans and apply for approvals." End quote.
Vulcan Ltd. also told us that the Film Erosion featured in this piece quote: "In no way reflects their environmental compliance record, nor the complexities of our operations and longstanding benefits of investment." End quote
We also reached out to Michelle Alvarez at the Ministry of Natural resources for comment on whether the company had in fact made an application for a mining license in the area her response was, quote: "Caracol Holdings Ltd. has a 3-year exploration license since 2019, to explore and test for limestone in the private property of White Ridge Farms. Such a licensee involves the cutting of trails and geological mappings to determine the quality and quantity of minerals in the area. That is at far as it goes. They don't have a mining license. They can't extract materials from the area." End quote.
