BETA Board Minutes Tues. Feb. 3 , 2pm, Chaa Creek Confrence Center

Members present: Mick Fleming, Godsman Ellis, Donna Hill, Judy Yaeger, Mike Green, Mike Heusner

Mick opened the meeting at 2pm.

The first agenda item was membership and recruitment. BETA currently has 31 paid members and $2,027 in assets. Mick said he’d write a letter to be sent via email outlining BETA’s mission and the problems cruise ships pose for long stay tourism in an attempt to gain more members. Once the letter is written, Mick will take responsibility to send it to all BTIA members; Judy to all past and present BETA members, and Donna to her client list.

Godsman gave a brief presentation about BACANGO—the Belize Alliance of Conservation Non-Governmental Organizations-- an NGO formed in 1999 with a mission of protecting the environment and fostering and promoting conservation and sustainable development. Members include Program for Belize, the Belize Zoo, Tropical Education Center, BELPO, Tide, Freshwater Creek, and Green Reef. BACANGO was extremely active in fighting the Chalillo dam, and will continue to monitor the dam’s progress for compliance with its EIA. The board agreed that BETA should apply to be part of BACANGO, and Judy agreed to write a letter of application, enclosed with a copy of the BETA code of ethics and a check for $200, to apply for membership.

The resolution of the Paines Creek issue was discussed; basically the government dereserved 2,300 acres of the park--800 to give to Punta Negra and 1500 acres to Mr. Zaboney for tourism development-- and annexed 10,000 acres to the park in the Deep River area. Concern was expressed that this sets a precedent for dereservation of protected land upon request of developers, and Mick said he would write a follow up letter to our initial letter indicating BETA’s concerns.

Luis Garcia is trying to be given management of the Cayo landfill; supposedly he has access to funds that would allow him to begin some recycling and better manage the landfill than what is currently being done. The San Ignacio town council is reluctant to turn management over to Mr. Garcia. He will make a presentation to the Cayo BTIA meeting Feb. 12. Generally BETA approved of Mr. Garcia’s proposal, although not a lot of details were known.

Mike Green brought up the issue of the River Keeper, a project initially funded by Wild Life Trust monitor the water of the Mopan and Macal Rivers. Friends for Conservation and Development directed the River Keeper project. The issue now seems to be who owns the River Keeper assets (boat, truck, water testing equipment, etc.) now that the funding has dried up and what will become of the River Keeper project. Godsman suggested that Mike join/set up a River Keeper committee within BACANGO.

Finally, the board looked at the cruise ship problem. All agreed that we needed a strategy to approach the problem and that there was a lot of support for trying to keep cruise travel in check within the Belize tourism industry. Mick and Mike H. reported on a meeting they had with Stewart Kronen, who agreed to help publicize BETA’s effort, but cautioned that the publicity had to be pegged to some new development or announcement to make it “news-worthy”. It was agreed that BETA had the best chance of effecting cruise ship tourism by trying to help establish meaningful carrying capacities of various sites and developing a plan for enforcement of the capacities and other parts of the cruise ship policy. Mick agreed to contact Jaime Awe about carrying capacities for the archaeological sites in the country, and Mike H. was going to talk to Coastal Zone, since they have the best information about the reef and cayes. It was agreed to try to have this information prior to the next meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy Yaeger

BETA Secretary