The Ministry of Natural Resources, Petroleum and Mining is committed to taking important steps to manage the physical space in Belize. The ministry is mandated to safeguard methodical land development and benchmark progress in developing an accurate and reliable land administration system.
The ministry, therefore, announces the following measures targeting the most serious breaches that would result in the compromise of land surveying in Belize:
(1) Land surveyors are reminded of the Land Survey Regulations, 2003, particularly regulation 13, which prohibits the employment of an unqualified assistant (survey technician) without the written approval of the Land Surveyors Board. All land surveyors are expected to comply with this regulation so that such assistants are properly registered at the Lands and Surveys Department.
(2) Licensed land surveyors are invited to direct a letter of request to the Lands and Survey Department detailing the particulars of all unqualified assistants (survey technicians) in their employment for consideration and approval by the Land Surveyors Board.
(3) With immediate effect, the Lands and Survey Department will no longer accept hand-held GPS/GNSS readings or ties to surveys with scaled origin of coordinates. All GPS/GNSS surveys must be accompanied by proper adjustment reports and coordinate transformation computations.
(4) An administrative fee of $10 per large print of cadastral plans will be charged to subsidize costs of printing and maintenance at the Surveys and Mapping Unit and the Land Information Centre.
The Ministry of Natural Resources, Petroleum and Mining urges licensed land surveyors to take note and comply with the requirements and the law. The public is advised to undertake proper due diligence and exercise caution in the engagement of a land surveyor to conduct land surveys.
