Oil Exploration Threatens Belize's Protected Areas

Sarstoon Temash National Park. Photo: SATIIM

By permitting oil exploration on indigenous lands, the government of Belize is violating international human rights law and possibly several other international treaties, according to the environmental group Global Response. The group says the government’s April 2006 decision to allow Texas-based U.S. Capital Energy to conduct seismic operations in Sarstoon Temash National Park, the country’s second largest protected area, is in breach of a 2004 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruling and may also violate Belize’s treaty obligations under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Belize, a Central American country roughly the size of Belgium, boasts more than 90 protected areas and has an international reputation for conservation and nature-based tourism. Over the past decade, however, the government has issued licenses for logging, oil exploration, and other extractive activities in areas that have traditionally been home to Belize’s indigenous Mayan communities, including Sarstoon Temash National Park, a 41,000-acre (16,592 hectare) area of pristine forests and coastline along the southern border with Guatemala.

In 1998, two native rights groups, the U.S.-based Indian Law Resource Center and the Toledo Maya Cultural Council, filed a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) arguing that by granting logging and oil concessions in indigenous territories without local consultation, the Belizean government was violating certain rights guaranteed under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. In October 2004, the ICHR ruled in favor of the petitioners, concluding that the failure of the government to consult with the Mayan people, and the negative environmental effects arising from the concessions, constituted violations under international human rights law.

Global Response and local groups say the allowance of new oil exploration in Sarstoon Temash National Park is in direct contravention of this ruling. Since 2003, the government of Belize and the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM), a group that represents five Q’eqchi Maya and Garifuna indigenous communities in the area, have managed the park jointly. But Greg Ch’oc, executive director of SATIIM, observes that when it comes to certain decisions, outside money has more clout than local governance—or even international law. “A wealthy foreign corporation can set off dynamite and extract oil without an environmental impact assessment or a mitigation plan,” he says. “This selective application of the law is a violation of the human rights of the indigenous people in Belize.”

At the request of SATIIM, Colorado-based Global Response is launching a letter-writing campaign to Belizean Prime Minister Said Musa to stop the destruction of biodiversity and indigenous livelihoods in the park. Sarstoon Temash includes 10 miles (16 kilometers) of Caribbean coastline and encompasses 14 ecosystem types, including undisturbed mangrove forest, the only comfra palm forest in Belize, and the only known lowland sphagnum moss bog in Central America. The park is home to a known 226 species of birds, 24 species of mammals, 22 species of reptiles, and 46 species of butterflies.

This story was produced by Eye on Earth, a joint project of the Worldwatch Institute and the blue moon fund. View the complete archive of Eye on Earth stories, or contact Staff Writer Alana Herro at aherro [AT] worldwatch [DOT] org with your questions, comments, and story ideas.