Report details illegal logging and more in the Chiquibul

The Guatemalan incursions in the Chiquibul Forest have been problematic for years. But in recent weeks, it made the news because illegal logging by the Guatemalans is rampant and they are making their way further into Belizean territory. The organization, Friends for Conservation and Development, has been studying the trends and today released a report called “Illegal Logging in the Chiquibul”. And as the Executive Director, Raphael Manzanero explains, there is more cause concern than Belizeans may realize.

Raphael Manzanero, Executive Dir., Friends for Conservation & Dev.

Raphael Manzanero

“The trend in terms of illegal logging in Chiquibul is really alarming. We have known about the impacts taking place in southern Belize, more into the Colombia river for quite some years, but now that really has moved up north. And what we have seen is in a period of six months the increase can be up to three kilometers or let’s call it a mile and a half inside of Belize. So it is really moving further into the tier of the country and also further south. So we already can put an approximation of some fifty-five thousand acres, which is now considered as the zone of influence. Meaning that, it’s not all the trees in that fifty-five thousand have been removed, but it means that there is movement of people moving in those areas, extracting mahogany and cedar.  As a result of our research on the ground in the Chiquibul, we can identify the extraction of timber, of mahogany and cedar. Once we start to look at a pilot program and try really to put it across the landscape of the Chiquibul, we can estimate that we are losing over fifteen million dollars worth of timber.  We can make a projection of that.  Belizeans tend to believe that this thing is happening right along the border. This that is occurring in terms of the illegal logging, we are talking of up to seven miles inside of Belize. How much does that really mean? It’s like coming from the western border around Melchor and Benque and going as far as San Ignacio. So that is really the distance of the area that people are going in terms of illegal logging. So it’s really a great cause of concern to us on the ground as we are seeing this escalation. We are quite desperate, we need to find and sort out the measures to put in place.”