93 year old man plants 85,000 Mahogany trees
Many people these days believe that the way to get things done is to form a committee or council, conduct an assessment and develop a strategic plan; hand it over to the appropriate minister of government; solicit international funding and/or donations from the business sector; get a consultant from abroad and then proceed to implementation. Others think you should just get started. As you will see in our next story, one Belizean gentleman isn’t letting anything stop him from fulfilling his goal of–as the NGOs might call it, “re-mahoganizing” Belize’s forests.
Very quietly, for the past fourteen years, there’s been a man living in the jungles along the Sibun River, undertaking an incredible task. His name is Henry Fairweather. You may recognize his name, as his contributions to Belize have been enormous. Once employed as a Government Surveyor, he was a member of the 1933 survey team that defined the Belize Guatemala border and thirty years later, he picked out the spot to build Belmopan. But today, at age ninety-three, he’s not planning cities or separating countries, he’s planting Mahogany trees.
Henry Fairweather, The Mahogany Man
“I have no textbook to follow on this. It’s just my long knowledge of the forest and my desire to do something for the country.”
Up until recently, only Fairweather’s friends and neighbors knew what he was up to. By his estimation, he’s spent more than half a million dollars planting more than eighty five thousand trees in his four hundred acres of Belize.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
But now Henry Fairweather is breaking the silence about the work he has been doing; simply because he has no more money or land to invest in his legacy.
Henry Fairweather
“We are out of funds completely and the time is right around the corner, if we don’t get some funds, some contribution, some aid, we’ll have to close down. I don’t think the people would like to see a move like this, close down without return. Some of my men who I had to lay off, and owe back pay are talking about taking legal action. It’s as bad as that.”
But why mahogany trees? Fairweather is holding out as long as possible because he believes that one day, his plantation will be a money making machine…an idea he wants to plant in the minds of other Belizeans.
Henry Fairweather
“I want them to plant enough mahogany for them to sell and it must be sustainable, that is, to be able to grow it continuously and live by that. And stop giving other people, particularly, those funding people, trouble or headache in helping them along.”
After dabbling in piracy and logwood cutting, it was mahogany that really put Belize on the economic map. Beginning in the 1700s, British, then American companies, set up shop and began exporting to meet the world’s demand. But the big bucks stopped when European tastes changed and the timber was no longer so easy to find. Henry Fairweather wants to change all that, and he’s willing to pay the price.
Henry Fairweather
“This business of mahogany is not play business you know. It is strictly hard work. Lot of sacrifices, lot of punishment, in doing without the thing that you need.”
There have been numerous setbacks like fires and floods that have wiped out parts of the plantation. But Fairweather’s foreman, Daniel Ordonez says nature’s wrath couldn’t hold them back.
Daniel Ordonez, Plantation Foreman
“Bout five or six years ago, we had a fire that burn out the whole of the area that we had planted out, only a few plants left, so we replanted. And as soon as we replanted, we had the flood again and it wiped out everything back out again and we replanted again. These are the plants you see just coming out in this area right here.”
A community based project, the Belize River Valley Development Program, BELRIV, has already promised to find some money to keep the Fairweather plantation up and running. They also see another kind of “green” in the mahogany leaves.
Lascelle Bowen, BELRIV, Founding Coordinator
“Today the mahogany is so important, that there are organizations and people in the world, who will pay you just to plant a mahogany tree for them on their land, that they could come and visit their own mahogany tree, that you don’t even have to cut it down. So, yes, people will be able to realize financial benefits.”
Whatever happens in the end, it’s pretty obvious that Fairweather himself won’t see the fruits of his labour. But that won’t stop him from putting trees in the ground.
Henry Fairweather
“I want to continue to plant as long as I can continue. I want to leave a legacy behind. I want to be able to, when I get to St. Peter, give account of my stewardship.”
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
Mr. Fairweather’s plantation is located off mile twenty-two on the Western Highway. If you would like to help with his crusade, contact BELRIV at 33800 or you can email them at belriv@btl.net
