Last month we told you about the new development on Northwestern Ambergris Caye, a project for a 2020 subdivision on the island that was approved in December of 2024 under what's called a Limited Level Environmental Study, which is not a full environmental impact assessment - and requires no public consultation. The Silver Palm Estate - which lies within a protected area- has sparked concerns on the environmentally conscious island. Additionally, the Fisheries Department wrote a strong letter insisting on the need for a full EIA. But, there won't be any. And so today we asked the Minister Of The Blue Economy, who is also the area representative for his take on the development. Let's just say, he's not a believer:
Andre Perez, Minister of the Blue Economy
"It is very important that we discuss this. And I did mention earlier that I voiced my dissatisfaction, I am not supporting it. Obviously my community does not support it and for many reasons, but first of all this piece of property that was given out we must understand something that this land was given out sometime around September in 2020. That is important. We need to know the history and the facts. How is it that this land came about in the hands of certain people, private owners and that came by way of land compensation. Now the people that got those land compensation decided to do a plan in developing it, cutting it up into I believe somewhere around, I saw the plans, about 600 lots and obviously this is not making any sense. It is not sustainable and the way they are doing it is from a plan. Obviously any kind of development has to do some kind of reclamation to do that all the waters over there are very shallow so either way you have to come through the Hol Chan Marine Reserve so that really raises concerns so not to be anything against the stakeholders and owners of the place but what is the right thing to do environmentally it is not correct from a blue economy standpoint we cannot support it. From the blue economy standpoint it is important that we always be balanced, we must be sustainable and we do support development but at the same time we must be mindful of our environment and as such this particular case here we cannot support."
Jo-
"So should it have gone to a full EIA and a public consultation?"
Andre Perez, Minister of the Blue Economy
"I fully agree yes, and that is why we are concerned because we were not consulted and I want to really state as well is that from the correspondence approved by the DOE back in December of 2024 we have correspondence from the fisheries department back in November 11th in 2020 where a letter was issued to the DOE expressing our objections that it was not the right thing to do. So we did our part from the fisheries department that we are not in support of it."
