[Coral-List] Petroleum Exploration and Exploitation in TCI

[Alizee Zimmermann]

Good afternoon Coral List,

I'm writing to you all today to ask for help.

On October 13th I was finally made aware of and given a copy of a Draft
Bill that was put forward by the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands
(TCIG) regarding legislation that would allow for oil exploration and
exploitation in TCI. The draft bill was put forward for a two-week public
consultation period from 1-14 Oct but no information was made public nor
was the draft bill available anywhere online. After raising the issue and
sharing widely on social media We were able to have the consultation period
extended to Oct 21st.

This lack of due diligence is not acceptable and TCIG has not followed
basic tenets of Public Consultation based on IFC guidelines.

We have started a petition asking for the extension of the Public
Consultation period so that the citizens of TCI can understand the
implications at hand. The dense 43pg legal document is not something that
average citizens can digest, let alone in less than  a week.

With help of a host of people, we are working on an actual response to this
Bill and would appreciate any input. Here is a link to the Draft Bill:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SQU6xd8N88YVk6K_e0NN691MOp6I9Fqj/view

Here is a copy of the letter template wrote for people  to ask for
extension:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/168_9VNLpPvWTGgnXayBkgpuUmr0bHq9h/view?fbclid=IwAR1U37sumovjUX_nJAq8smQeNUdvwY8hRxv-PlmkoZrN6PFemj-RL2iNKYI

We sent an official TC Reef Fund letter as well.

Here is a link to the change.org petition asking for extension of
consultation period:

https://www.change.org/p/turks-caicos-islands-government-tell-tcig-to-extend-the-consultative-period-on-the-petroleum-bill?recruiter=281881716&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_abi&utm_term=psf_combo_share_abi&recruited_by_id=b9d32210-e835-11e4-93d4-69ebe329d320&utm_content=fht-25296621-en-gb%3A0

Thank you all for help and advice.

Wishing you all a safe and happy weekend.

Alizée Zimmermann
SCTLD Project Manager
Turks and Caicos Reef Fund
www.tcreef.org