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Back in November, Oceana Belize's Janelle Chanona sounded the alarm bells, announcing to the country that the prime minister had mentioned his plans for seismic testing to her. To do that would mean lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling - and though the government emphasized that they had no plans to drill, they did admit that seismic testing would assist in ascertaining the resources located at the bottom of Belize's waters.
So, it wasn't completely off the table for them, and while they insisted they do not intend to drill, Oceana wasn't taking any chances. They launched into a petition drive and over the past seven months, gathered 22,000 signatures that would ensure that a referendum is held before any exploration or extraction is done as it relates to offshore oil.
Today, those petitions were delivered to the governor general in Belmopan. Courtney Menzies was there and has this story.
This trailer carrying 22,000 signed petitions, made its way up the hill to the government house this afternoon at 2 p.m.. The ten plastic containers carrying the petitions were then logged off by members of Oceana Belize and carted inside the Governor General's office where they will be vetted by her team. The petition drive started back in November when VP Janelle Chanona announced that the government had been considering seismic testing to find out what treasures live beneath Belize's waters.
Janelle Chanona, Vice President, Oceana Belize
"We had and we remain dedicated towards shortening the moratorium and we had approached the current administration to look at how we can strengthen that existing protection. When we learned that there was some consideration and intention to do seismic, to quote unquote know what's out there and we felt and continue to feel very strongly that the public deserves to be part of that decision making process in terms of lifting the moratorium, because seismic would constitute exploration."
"And the current moratorium speaks to a suspension of all exploration or extraction activities. At the end of the day, what this reiterates reminds and truly respects is that Belizeans since 2010 have wanted to be part of the conversation on offshore oil, part of the decision. And I think it is increasingly a point that this is environmental justice."
"At the end of the day, we will all be impacted whether we are a part of the industry or not, by what fossil fuels are doing. And I think it's critical for us as Belizeans of today and future Belizeans to have collective, transparent, well informed deliberations before we we decide to go down that road."
And while the process was worth it, she admitted it was a little wasteful considering the impact 22,000 paper petitions have on the environment.
Janelle Chanona, Vice President, Oceana Belize
"I think in terms of lessons learned, certainly as a conservationist, it was not lost that this is so much paper and we want to meet the legal requirements. So we we met those. But I think truly it is historic that we've gotten to this point, but it really should be a regular exercise. We should be going to referendum far more often than we have been. There are so many issues that I think Belizeans want to participate in. We have the technology. We have the legislation. Electronic signatures have just been accepted. We can create a far more user friendly, far more regular process for referenda."
And though it was a lot of blood, sweat and tears Chanona said they do it all over again to protect Belize's most important and beloved resource.
Janelle Chanona, Vice President, Oceana Belize
"I think it's because the connection we have to our resources is so visceral. I mean, who are we if we are not second largest barrier reef in the world? Who are we if we can't go and eat mango in the sea? Who are we? If we can't go catch the fish and then eat that same time? That is such a part of us."
"And we see that even when we move out of Belize, that that is the the associations that we connect to when we are away from home. So many things fall off the stove, back of the stove getting lost. Replaced by the next scandal or the next big issue. But this issue, there has been persistence, resistance, perseverance. Belizeans really don't want to be left out of this conversation because I think they fully grasp or many, very many Belizeans fully grasp what what that would mean and just how inherently dirty and dangerous it is."
And the team at Oceana Belize personally vetted the petitions before they were delivered, ensuring that all 22,000 of them were legitimate.
