Environmental Threats
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| Development: False Caye |
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Member Belize Association of Belize Tourism
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False Caye is an overwash mangrove caye
(virtually no land) located approximately one-half mile east of Seine
Bight and Maya Beach.
The developer for the development approved by the Belize Department of the Environment (DOE) on 29 July 2008 is Maya Island Resort Properties, Ltd, a Belize corporation (principal, Eugene Zabaneh) and The Poe Companies, a Kentucky corporation engaged in domestic US hotel and office building development nd real estate sales (primary client, Marriot Hotel chain). The Environmental Impact Assessment for the development recognized that "the area of the project site is marked by three (3) of the most productive tropical ecosystems, viz: mangrove forests, sea grass beds and coral reefs . . . [and] the bird species documented is an indication of the species 'richness' of the area." Developer's representatives claimed at a public consultation on 8 October 2007 that False Caye would be essentially preserved, with most mangrove remaining. Also, the EIA states that the development will have a small footprint. However, according to the False Caye EIA, five feet of fill will be deposited on False Caye inside a perimeter retaining wall. No plants, not even mangroves, can survive being buried by five feet of fill, and Section 2.6 of the EIA states that 62.6 acres, or 87.6% of False Caye is covered by mangroves. Therefore, it appears that the only mangrove to be preserved will be mangrove outside the retaining wall and possibly around the perimeters of the lagoons -- and that the False Caye developer attempted to hide this fact by failing to provide required information on how much acreage will actually be cleared. Basically, DOE agreed to permit the existing False Caye to be destroyed and to be used merely as a base for the creation of an entirely new caye. (Section 1.2.2.5 of the EIA acknowledges this result by stating that "[t]he majority of the caye will need to be reclaimed and reconfigured if the project is to be developed along the current lines submitted.") The EIA also dismisses False Caye's function as a fish, conch and lobster nursery as only a minor tertiary impact because of "limited fishing efforts," which has nothing to do with the nursery function - a nursery fosters juvenile species, not species that are old enough to be commercially fished. Further, the EIA mis-identified many species of coral and fish, listed fish that haven't been seen in the area in 12 or more years, failed to identify fish which were found in one dive by a marine biologist from the Placencia area, failed to acknowledge the presence of the endangered Nassau grouper, claimed to have identified Elkhorn coral which no longer exists in the Placencia area and made statements such as "increased nutrients on sea grass coverage . . . should be beneficial, and fail to acknowledge the effects of dredging on live corals. Nonetheless, the National Environmental Advisory Committee (NEAC) and DOE approved the development, which will include:
Photos from False Caye |
Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development General Delivery Placencia, Belize info@saveourpeninsula.org www.saveourpeninsula.org 011-501-610-4718 |
