Villagers, Private Owners Raise Alarm Over Maya Land Rights

Reports are emerging tonight of growing tension in the south, where villagers from San Marcos are said to be organizing to take over a parcel of land in Big Fall. The problem? That land belongs to a private farmer, but some residents insist it forms part of their communal territory. At the same time, a group of private landowners in the Toledo district has reached out to News Five, raising fresh concerns about how the proposed Maya land tenure bill could impact their rights, their access, and their long‑term security on the properties they legally hold. So today, we put those questions directly to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Dr. Louis Zabaneh.

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Indigenous Affairs

“We met a few months back with landowners, because we wanted to ensure we understood the situation from all perspectives. These are called third parties in the case, meaning they are affected by any decision made where the delamination of Maya areas would cover private lands, whether it is tittle lands or lease lands. So, we had to meet with them and we did. We encouraged them to organize themselves and they did that in the past few week and they have legal representation now. And we met with them and their legal counsel. We have met with the Cabinet subcommittee to look at the concerns they raised through their attorney. And, that is in process right now, that discussion from the government side to be able to have a response for them in due course. We have a mechanism that was put in place, a pro-temp expert committee of the people in the ministries that forms the Cabinet Subcommittee. So, we have the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Attorney General’s Office, obviously our Indigenous Affairs office, the environment that has to do with reserve areas and of course we have from the Ministry of National Security because of the contention situation. So, we have experts forming this pro-temp committee and the first thing they looked at is persons around these Maya communities, non-Mayas who have been on hold in terms of being able to pay for their taxes for tittles and leases. That was addressed in the past couple of weeks. Now we are making progress. We wanted to address that serious concern where they were unfairly impacted, because they own this land. So you have other communities who are non- Maya and they cant use  their land.”

 

Gov’t Role Questioned in $40M Indigenous Climate Grant

 

The Indigenous communities of Belize are now in line to benefit from a major climate investment, forty million U.S. dollars unlocked this week by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center through the Green Climate Fund. The Julian Cho Society will lead the project on the ground, but that raises a serious question: what exactly is government’s role in making sure this money truly reaches the people it’s meant to help? Today, we put that question directly to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs.

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of Indigenous Affairs

“I believe the ministry of economic transformation was the ministry responsible for the process. When myself and Minister Chebat were in South Korea where the headquarters for GCF is located, we had the opportunity to get an update from them, that was in November of last year. That is when I learnt how far they were with this. So, as we know, the Green Climate Fund gives assistance to various countries that are adversely affected by climate change. And this is in that spirit, to assist indigenous groups around the world who are suffering from extreme weather conditions that affects their agriculture or a coastline erosion that affects their village. So that is what I am aware of. We had a conversation with them about also considering the Garifuna community as well.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: