Earlier this month, we talked about the efforts of the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA) to slow down or block the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) "mega cruise development" on Harvest Caye in Southern Belize. 

You can read our article here.

It seems that Belize’s Department of Environment (DOE),under pressure from Miami-based NCL, rushed the massive and environmentally unsound project and avoided consulting with the public in Belize.

We have seen other cruise lines destroy ancient coral reef and mangroves during dredging and land-clearing projects to build one-sided projects designed to suck the money and resources out of Caribbean countries.  

Today I ran across a "letter to the editor" from the Chairman of the Placencia Chapter of the Belize Tourism Industry Association.

Characterizing the NCL executives who pitched the project as "con men" and those Belizeans who are hastily moving the project ahead without public participation in the environmental impact analysis as "lackeys," the tourism president asked some compelling questions about the Harvest Caye project.  

You can read the article here. 

NCL will carve up the mangroves and tear out the reefs to build their fantasy resort and wedge their massive ships in.  

Once projects like this are plotted and hatched here in Miami, the wishes of the local people are irrelevant. Its only a matter of time before the bulldozers rip out the mangroves and the indigenous flora and fauna are replaced by the fill of crushed reefs. 

Image credit:  ambergristoday.com