The sovereignty of fossil fuels is descend to an end in Belize . In a colossal attempt to save the domain ’s secondly largest roadblock reef , the Central American nation has formally decided to end all vegetable oil geographic expedition and extraction in its water .
The Belize Barrier Reef is a 300 - km - long ( 186 - mile - foresighted ) strip of gorgeous coral Rand , stunning clear piddle , offshore atolls , mangrove forest , coastal lagoons , and estuaries that lie within the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System .
It ’s oftendescribed asone of the most divers ecosystem in the world , serving as home to around 100 different specie of coral , C of invertebrate species , and over 500 fish species . As such , the Belize Barrier Reef was spot as aUNESCO World Heritage Centrein 1996 .
Ever since theBP Deepwater Horizon crude spillin 2010 , when 4.9 million barrel of rock oil flood into the Gulf of Mexico , the people of Belize and environmental groups havebeen pushingfor their political science to make this determination . The area first proposed this idea in late-2015 and they finally do to pass the peak in the last workweek of 2017 .
" This is really ' The People ’s Law , ' " Oceana ’s Vice President for Belize Janelle Chanona said in astatement . “Belizeans have remained steadfast in their confrontation to seaward oil since they became cognisant that nautical plus were at risk of irreversible damage from the seaward fossil oil industry . "
Although environmentalism is a Brobdingnagian drive force behind the bill , Belize does have some other self-aggrandising incentives to protect their wondrous reefs . The Belize Barrier Reef is the commonwealth ’s biggest tourist attraction , contributing up to $ 237 million a yr to its economy . Not only that , the Witwatersrand also dissemble as a fishery , cater food and employment for nearly 190,000 people .
" Today is a great day for Belize , " Nadia Bood , Mesoamerican reef scientist at World Wildlife Fund ( WWF ) , tell in astatement . “Not only has its government mind to call to protect the Belize Barrier Reef , which only last year was under threat from seismal oil geographic expedition , it has stepped up to become a world loss leader in ocean auspices by ending all rock oil activity in its waters . "
Chris Gee , WWF - UK ’s # SaveOurHeritage lede campaigner , added : “ Like the Belize Barrier Reef , about one-half of natural World Heritage sites worldwide are threaten by industrial pressure , if we do n’t put an last to this , their unparalleled wildlife and landscapes could be damaged forever . ”
Meanwhile , back in the US , the Trump administration has latterly denote plan to unloosen the large number ofoffshore oil and accelerator lease salesin US chronicle , include protected areas in the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans . Two steps forward and one step back , I suppose .
