Addressing Cattle Ranching Requires Efforts of Many Governmental Agencies

Rafael Manzanero

While some of the well known threats to the Chiquibul such as xaté and poaching have received attention, narco-cattle ranching has not been addressed by the government despite many reports. It requires a concerted effort from many governmental agencies. 

Rafael Manzanero, Executive Director, Friends for Conservation and Development

“We need to understand that if we really want to deal with it then we also have to work with Guatemalan counterparts as one of the strategy. We also need to ensure that the OAS becomes much more involved because much of the cattle ranching is occurring right within the context of the adjacency zone with is the one kilometer. That is what makes is more complicated because of the sensitivity issues there. But we return back again to basically understand the rules and regulations of Belize. We know that anybody who is doing this kind of illicit activity, the same rules applies and we need to deal with that. I would hope that there would be a cohesive action done before it becomes too late. We have been saying this over the last three years.”

Reporter

“So you have confiscated cattle?”

Rafael Manzanero

“Cattle ranching have not been really dealt with. We have detained a couple of individuals but frankly it has never really- because the question is what we do with the cattle for example. Do you slaughter the on the ground? Do you break the cage for them to go back to their original place? It’s a complicated one but we need to deal with it.”