The Prime Minister also spoke about the difficult balance between the push environmental protection and investments in the development of pristine areas. Here is how the PM framed it:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"That is always a challenge, we as a country, we have to develop. We have to create jobs, we have to create opportunities for people so they could live a better life but that does not mean that we have to destroy what we have and so there has to be a better appreciation of what we have and in many instances developers don't think that through and I've had many meetings with developers and I always tell them you need to think about the area that you're going to be working because sometimes some areas it's a flood plane and so you put your investment there and then you lose it. Other areas it is not the best place for agriculture so that is where the Ministry of Sustainable Development could partner with you to make sure that what you're doing is done properly but apart from that and as I said earlier I think it's really time to be able to pass either legislation or policy that will prevent people in development in agriculture that a certain percentage of the land must be kept in its natural state, you know I remember when I was the Minister back then for lands and a lot of 50 acres and want to develop it for agriculture, I want a clean cut permit and then they take the clean cut permit, cut down all of the trees and then they do nothing with the land obviously they only wanted to sell the land, the trees you know the logs and so that is a practice that I think we need to stop as much as we possibly can it's only when you have a real plan that we should be able to allow you to do that and then also at a certain percentage has to be protected in its natural state so when you think on all of these things they are challenges they are serious challenges but I believe that more and more Belizeans are becoming more aware of development versus conservation more and more you hear Belizeans are calling out the forestry department or calling out the department of environment to say hey somebody is doing something right here I don't know if they have the permits and in many instances they do have but they just are calling to make sure that these people are following the law so again it has to be a joint effort it's not just governed by itself or even the NGO community or developers but even the public at large, we have to create a bigger, a more conscious awareness of what is at stake."
