Yesterday we told you about South Silk Caye - a small island east of the Placencia peninsula that's in danger of being washed away. This prompted tourism stakeholders and residents of Placencia to load up their boats with sandbags to attempt to build a 135 foot breakwall. It seemed like a great concerted community effort and a solution to an environmental emergency that didn't cost government a thing and ended the analysis paralysis on how to fix the maddening problem that has already claimed a nearby island.
But today, the Fisheries Department issued a release which says that they were just plain wrong. The release acknowledges, quote, "the urgent actions needed to counter the impacts of climate change" and says the department has been working with its co-managers to address these threats in a manner that is strategic and environmentally safe. However, they say this most recent case is of special concern because the site being altered is within a high biodiversity conservation zone where only non-extractive use is allowed. They add that any activity to be conducted within a Marine reserve requires a license or authorisation in accordance with the Fishers Resources Act. An Environmental Impact Assessment would have also needed to be conducted.
So with all these official red flags, Fisheries says Fisheries says despite efforts by their Enforcement Officers and the Coast Guard to stop the process from continuing without proper authorisation, the organisers refused to cease their work.
So now, the position is that the Ministry of the Blue Economy and Fisheries will be engaging the co-managers of the marine reserve as well as the community leaders to seek the most expeditious but legally valid approach in addressing the issue of non-compliance and moving forward with the completion of the restoration works.
And the Southern Environmental Association also issued their own release, distancing itself from the incident. They're saying that while they had issued a letter advising the public that beach erosion mitigation work would have been conducted on April 30th and May 1st, they did so believing that the community had obtained all the relevant permits and approvals to proceed with the work. The executive director, Dr Carlos Itza, admitted that he did not ensure those were granted and it was not his intention to create the impression that SEA was giving approval to the activity. A release today says, quote, "The Board of Directors of SEA…has found that the Executive Director erred in not gathering the relevant information before issuing that letter to the public."
SEA's release continues by saying that their efforts have to be guided by science and rule of law. As such, they have asked the acting fisheries administrator to assist in organising a forum with the relevant parties to start necessary discussion on the way forward.
