Members of timber industry voice concerns

Concern that there may be too many timber licenses and not enough trees for everyone to cut, led 75 members of the industry and personnel from the Forest Department to meet in Belmopan this week. While it is true that 79% of Belize is under some form of forest cover, 40% of this falls under protected areas guidelines. Chief Forest Officer Oswald Sabido says that only 14% of the country’s land is suitable for sustained timber production and that the Government controls 11%, and private interests the remainder. At the meeting, participants raised concerns about timber production and its environmental impact, manpower for monitoring licenses, land ownership by foreigners, depletion of resources and illegal logging. The Forest Department says these concerns will be analyzed and may be incorporated into new policies for granting licenses, revising the length of long-term licenses and better communication between the industry and government.