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San Pedro townspeople are alarmed by recent reports of mangrove clearing in the San Mateo area of the town. In a time of natural disasters and climate change, mangroves are regarded as one of the most reliable natural buffers. And that's why in order to clear them in the town, a permit is needed.
But according to the mayor, they're not seeing any permits, though the investigation into the matter hasn't concluded. Here's what he told us yesterday.
Gualberto Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro Town
"There is still an investigation going on, however, our building unit works directly and closely with the Ministry of Forestry so any clearing of mangroves, even trimming of mangroves is illegal so you need to obtain a permit ahead of time and you need to notify us as well. Actually, the ministry always notifies us so we know where it's going to be done. We as a council are always on top of it, trying to prevent these things from happening. At the moment, we understand that there is a development there that is going to take place so it works both ways but yes we had to have that information ahead of time and any clearing should be done with the permits and everything ahead of the game."
"At the moment, I am not familiar with any permits but we have the building unit investigating. We know that there is an area that is planned to be developed as a port where the barge would be able to come to the area in the north and alleviate the traffic from the north which is a good thing in a way, but any clearing or anything done with respect to mangroves, we need to be notified and we need to be on top of the game because you know we can't just be clearing the mangroves."
