Tonight, the expedition into the Chiquibul continues as we re-cap yet another part of Cherisse Halsall's fact-finding mission.
This time we'll delve into some of the fundamental questions about the operations of the Mining company working in the Maya mountains. Here's more:
Last night we gave you a glimpse of our into the Chiquibul, taking you all the way up to our final destination The Boiton Minerals Ltd. mining camp in the Maya Mountains has been in the headlines - but not on camera - and when we saw it for the first time - it was striking: a stripped area in the middle of a vast forest.
Rafael Manzanero - Executive Director, FCD
"This is really the Chiquibul national park and originally the development of this area under that category of a protected area which makes it really a high category of as a national park, it was really because of the water resources."
And FCD believes protecting that water resource is of paramount concern - and that means playing strictly by the rules:
Rafael Manzanero
"I think the major concern here has been if the company is actually engaging and following up the environmental compliance plan and that is what pretty much we don't really fully understand because we are not really purview to all the discussions and kind of all the regulations that were attached to this, so for us it's really more of a searching for information that hopefully we'll be able to understand more over the next couple of days. You know given that as far as we know the government is only now putting more interest in terms of what else is transpiring here."
That's the crux of the matter and the worry is that a journey like our fact-finding one isn't something that the average public officer is able to make twice a month.
Elma Kay - Forest Biologist, FCD
"In this particular instance you are in such a remote area. All of us who came on this trip and you know I'm used to being in the forest, but this trip I mean, as we would say in creole you take a liking, right, because you are on this tractor for this long, that's how the workmen for the company you know for the operations that your about to see they also travel by tractor because this is the only way and it's not an easy ride, so you have to ask yourselves, what is it that when we made this decision to grant this license and have this development. What were we thinking in terms of monitoring."
And without monitoring in this important watershed whose to say how these activities are affecting the streams and tributaries that eventually lead to the Belize river?
Ed Boles - Aquatic Ecologist
"In generality it's probably a significant sediment load, how far down it's already traveled and where it' being deposited are questions that we would want to ask, the Belize river is a very important river nationally, everybody drinks from the Belize river including people from the north and the south, if you drink Coca Cola's and Belkin's and bottled water your drinking Belize river water."
It's a concern for Senator for NGO's Osmany Silas. He was on the expedition and told me that ultimately he comes away from the trip with more questions than answers.
Osmany Salas - Senator for Civil Society
"A key questions is from when has this company and its principals, from when has this company been extracting gold from their operation, from when, because for many years all they were suppose to have was a prospecting licence or an exploration licence, have they been extracting gold from those times, and from when they got their first license to operate and to extract, and how much has been taken out, what value, what monetary value it has."
In one press release, the company says, quote, "it has for years expended more money than it has earned," and in another it adds "In the process of……creating employment and generating Foreign Exchange, the use of our Natural Resources will be temporarily impacted…impacted areas will be rehabilitated by the placement of topsoil and re-vegetation, among other remedial work.
But, the scientists on this trip aren't so sure the impacts are temporary.
Elma Kay
"Mining takes away all the forest cover and all of that so i that area there is going to be no wildlife. I think for me the trip raises more questions that it gives answers, and my main questions surround the issue of overall, when we have developments in this country, what is the decision making process that we have in Belize to actually give permission."
The Boiton Mining Limited press release also claims that its activities serve as a deterrent to illegal Guatemalan gold panners saying quote:
"The illegal gold panning being done by the Guatemalans illegally crossing our border has done considerable damage as they slash and burn to survive and also use mercury which is dangerous. Boition Minerals Ltd. uses no chemicals, and BML's presence decreases Guatemalan activity."
And tonight in another Press release, this one from The Association of Protected Area Management Organizations, APAMO. They call for G.O.B to halt gold mining in the Chiquibul National Park saying quote:
" As a country very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and in serious economic crisis, Belize depends on its forests to support our climate change adaptation and migration strategies. Therefore we cannot afford for destructive mining operations, wholly within our control to bring further loss of forests resources."
