Belize Court Protects Barrier Reef from Unsafe Oil Drilling
BELIZE CITY, Belize, April 18, 2013 (ENS) – In a case brought by environment groups, Belize’s Supreme Court has declared offshore oil drilling contracts issued by the Government of Belize in 2004 and 2007 null and void.
The ruling halts the Belizean government’s immediate effort to allow offshore oil drilling in the Meso American Reef, the world’s second largest barrier reef.
The ruling by Justice Oswell Legall was in response to a case brought by Oceana, Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action, COLA, and the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage.
One of Jacques Cousteau’s top 10 scuba sites, Belize’s Blue Hole was scheduled for oil drilling. (Photo by USGS)
http://ens-newswire.com/2013/04/18/belize-court-protects-barrier-reef-from-unsafe-oil-drilling/
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Toledo community leaders unhappy with amnesty program for Rosewood
Posted by staff on April 12th, 2013 Posted in Economics, Government
On Monday of this week Plus TV broke the news that the confiscated rosewood flitches which were located at the Forestry compound in Belmopan, were being moved. That report triggered a press release from the Ministry who informed of a new amnesty period for Rosewood harvesters. Well today The Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) and the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA) sent out a press release saying and “that they are deeply disturbed and utterly outraged by the government’s decision to allow persons who illegally harvested rosewood in Toledo to now export the wood and share the illicit profit from these sales with the government. By doing this, the government of Belize is saying to the entire country and to the international community as well that it will allow so-called loggers to violate the laws and regulations, steal from legally recognized Maya lands and be rewarded and even embraced as business partners by our elected officials.” According to both organizations this decision by government ranks among the worst of the many recent improprieties and injustices surrounding the rosewood and larger logging industry. We emphatically state that government’s conduct regarding rosewood and its extraction from Maya lands is intolerable. In closing the release says that and “The original rosewood logging permits are in violation of the 2010 Supreme Court injunction in the Maya Land Rights case that prohibits the government from issuing permits and concessions on Maya land without the consent of the Maya villages. The government has compounded this wrongdoing by allowing the sale of the illegally harvested wood after its confiscation and diving up the profits with the very people they should be prosecuting.”
http://www.plustvbelize.com/news/toledo-community-leaders-unhappy-with-amnesty-program-for-rosewood/
...that if oil was found in a child's heart, big oil would drill there for it. 
