RE: Please protect Sarstoon Temash National Park

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

I join many citizens around the world in congratulating you for Belize’s fine international reputation for conservation and eco-tourism, and for exercising responsible stewardship of them through your system of over 90 protected areas, some of which are also recognized as RAMSAR wetlands and National Heritage Sites. However, I am very concerned about the potential effect of your nation’s recent oil boom on Belize’s environmental protection policies. I urge you to uphold the protected status of Sarstoon Temash National Park, invaluable for its unique marine, wetlands and rainforest ecosystems, and to prohibit oil development there.

Oil development should be prohibited from all National Parks, since they protect some of your nation’s most precious and irreplaceable environmental treasures, and they constitute a strong attraction to me and to many other potential visitors to your nation.

In your consideration of permits for oil development in southern Belize and especially in Sarstoon Temash National Park, it is vital that your government respect the traditional land rights of the Maya and Garifuna peoples as defined by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. It is also essential to honor the co-management agreement with the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM), including the government’s obligation to seek SATIIM’s prior and informed consent regarding oil development within the Park.

The people of Belize deserve a development model that does not rob them of their most precious biological resources, and one that does not further accelerate climate change. Your nation is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming and should heed the World Bank’s warning that “climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions will reduce economic growth, development and investment in the world's most vulnerable nations.”

I hope that future citizens of Belize and the world will be proud of the choices you make for the long-term security and well-being of your beautiful country. Please keep Sarstoon Temash and all Belize’s National Parks safe from the well-documented dangers of the oil industry.

Most Sincerely,

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