And while the possibility of seismic testing was Chanona's main talking point today, she also expressed her concerns with the consultation process for Waterloo's port expansion project. She feels that, so far, it hasn't been meaningful, and she also doesn't buy Waterloo's explanation when asked about issues like the geotextile curtains. She also believes a marine spatial plan should be conducted before moving forward on major projects. Here's how she put it today:
Janelle Chanona, Vice President, Oceana Belize
"I continue to have some fundamental issues around this process because one, I still do not see how this is happening as being a consultation. At least at a meaningful consultation I know there was a push for a public hearing. I haven't seen anything on that, and I understand that NEAC will be meeting on this issue and others on the 24th of November. So, it's going ahead to decision, I think if you take everything at face value, you'd believe that this project is what Belize has been waiting for forever. I will be honest and say I'm not convinced that the textiles will work in the manner that they have asserted just because again being around much smaller projects attempting to use the same methods, I have not seen that success outside of a hurricane situation or a storm situation. So, I think no matter what happens at the NEAC meeting, I think there will be some type of legal action that we can expect and I think that should be enough for the membership of NEAC to be cognizant of that going in and to make sure that all their I's are dotted and all their T's are crossed and that they have documentation to show that they've done proper due diligence and arrived at the best decision for Belize. I think that will become, as I said, a matter of review from associated attorneys."
Reporter
"Do you see the point of a fellow environmental group - that the government should wait for the outcome at least the first year of data in relation to a marine spatial plan to move ahead with approving these large scale blue project?"
Janelle Chanona, Vice President, Oceana Belize
"I fundamentally agree with the marine spatial plan process because I think you only need to look at the fact that we only have so much geography to work with and as big as that space can feel, if we're talking about doing industrialization of our blue spaces, we will have to figure out very quickly what that means."
We'll keep following this story.
