Oil exploration threatens Belize's protected areas.

• Author: Herro, Alana
• Position: EYE ON EARTH

The government of Belize is violating international human rights law and possibly other global treaties by permitting oil exploration on indigenous lands, according to the environmental advocacy group Global Response. The group says Belize'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, violates a 2004 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruling and may also breach 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 traditionally home to indigenous Mayan communities, including the 16,600-hectare Sarstoon Temash region 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 with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) arguing that by granting logging and oil concessions on indigenous lands without consulting residents the Belizean government was violating rights guaranteed under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. In 2004, the ICHR ruled in favor of the petitioners...