BGYEA’s Mission for Sustainable Living Opposed by G.O.B.

The office of the Attorney General of Belize has filed an interim injunction which threatens imprisonment and other sanctions against members of BGYEA (the Belize Grassroots Youth Empowerment Association), if they proceed with an initiative to utilize basic agricultural development in their maintenance of the buffer zone of the Harmonyville Farming Community.

The innovative initiative would not only clean and beautify the buffer zone (something the government had previously indicated was BGYEA’s responsibility) but, was also designed to provide for the development of roads for the Harmonyville Community (something for which the government had previously indicated that no help would be forthcoming), all in a manner that in no way precludes future use of the buffer zone for public purposes.

BGYEA consistently respectfully acknowledged the government’s ultimate ownership of the buffer zone, and expressed understanding and appreciation that government may, at an unknown time in the future, require the buffer for public purposes but, having been tasked with its maintenance in the interim, BGYEA saw non-permanent agricultural development as the most feasible way to manage the buffer zone. They developed a plan to plant 3-month crops in the strip of land that buffer’s the community from the George Price Highway, providing security and much needed support for the infrastructural development of the community.

BGYEA publicly sought and secured an investor who agreed to the agricultural investments in the buffer zone, under terms that would see 15% of profits going into the development of the Harmonyville community, at absolutely no financial cost (or any other form of loss) to the government of Belize.

Activities commenced with investments of over $40,000 but on May 8^th 2014, the Government of Belize issued a stop order to the investor. BGYEA and the nation learned about it via press release in which it the government of Belize informed the people that buffer zone areas in any development are the property of the Government of Belize and that any activity within the buffer zone should only occur with the permission of the Lands and Survey Department, within the Ministry of the Natural Resources and Agriculture.

On May 9^th, BGYEA submitted a letter of request for permission to proceed. It was denied.

In its letter of rejection, the Ministry of Natural Resources points to the fact that BGYEA had only recently¹ advocated for the ministry’s assistance in removing squatters who were erecting dwellings in the buffer zone².

It should be noted however that 1) BGYEA sought to ‘remove’ the squatters from the buffer zone into 1 acre parcels within the Harmonyville subdivision, thus facilitating them to legal title to more land than that on which they had previously squatted.

The actions being taken by the government of Belize smack of malice, in light of the facts that

1) by their own admission, when agents of the government saw the initial clearing, they thought BGYEA would be planting trees in the buffer and took no issue with it until it was realized that the group would actually be planting cash crops,

2) while the government on multiple occasions publicly affirmed the expectation that BGYEA would manage the buffer zone, it now threatens that BGYEA is restrained “whether by themselves, or servants or agents or whoever from trespassing, entering, possessing, clearing, planting crops, placing or projecting any object on or over the land, encumbering or dealing with the reserve buffer zone situate at Mile 41 of the George Price Highway in respect of the area known as Harmonyville”

3) The government of Belize has on multiple occasions relaxed regulations allowing for foreign investors to engage in all manner of development in ecologically sensitive areas³ of Belize,

4) while government calls on BGYEA to ‘follow the rule of law” it points to no specific law which BGYEA is in fact breaking,

5) the development proposed by BGYEA would leave no discernible (lasting or otherwise) negative impact on the buffer zone yet would provide opportunity for improved way of life for over 1,000 common Belizean men and women who gained access to parcels of land for the first time through BGYEA’s Harmonyville initiative.

On June 8th, Belizean people will be asked to speak out at a rally at Battle Field Park, directly in front of the Supreme Court of Belize. A mobile protest app has also been set up allowing the public to voice their concerns directly to government by texting the word ‘LANDS’ followed by their message to (501) 662-2981.

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Footnotes:

1. BGYEA advocated in 2011 for the relocation of the squatters and but only recently received offer of assistance in that regard from the ministry

2. While erecting dwellings in the buffer zone would have been contrary to the nature of a buffer zone planting corn would not be. In real estate, ‘buffer zone’ is a term meaning an area of land separating one distinct type of land use from another and providing a transition. In many municipalities, parks are used as buffers between residential and commercial zones. In the case of Harmonyville, corn would separate highway from residential.

3. The Belizean government has facilitated development in ecologically sensitive areas including through the issuing contracts for offshore drilling near Belize’s highly sensitive bread-winning barrier reef (ignoring the people’s attempt to bring that matter to a referendum), extending permits for oil drilling in the Sarstoon Temash in Mayan Traditional Lands (days after after a court ruled that the government was required to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of the Mayan people before issuing such permits), and passing a highly questionable EIA allowing Norwegian Cruise Line to proceed with a much contested development in Southern Belize.