New rosewood felling still occurring
Pablo Mis
While officialdom continues to hide behind press releases vowing that no freshly cut rosewood will be exported and all who cut rosewood during the amnesty will be punished forthwith, credible sources continue to tell News Five that there is a veritable rosewood cutting frenzy in southern Belize. Our source tells us that just today, a bus loaded with about forty men travelled to the Roaring Creek area between the Santa Ana Bridge and the Midway junction where trucks were loaded with fresh cut rosewood. According to that source, he reported the matter to the Forestry Department, but was told that they could do nothing. This morning members of the Maya Leaders Alliance were guests on the morning show and confirmed that the Forestry Department is not able to deal with the frenetic rosewood cutting.
Pablo Mis, Program Coordinator, M.L.A.
“You have right now middlemen going back into the community to say cut, cut. And as we speak, there is evidence of freshly felled trees. So a repeat on the decision going back on what was happening. Two; there is no measures in place for forest department to be able to monitor the situation. They haven’t been monitoring the stocks; rosewood is spoiling all over again—we are seeing the repeat. The Alcaldes were never informed. I can tell you for instance in Santana and Santa Teresa, it reached boiling point between villages because there is a group of villagers concerned about what is happening on their land and the others are using the amnesty cover to extract rosewood. So the Alcaldes don’t feel that they are consulted or involved in the decision making. But ultimately I think that it is important to point out that we recognize the economic situation and people are looking forward to opportunities. And the strong message I think is that we can’t do things haphazardly; we can’t just make decisions without making sure that there are the necessary measures in place, the necessary controls that we clearly understand the role of the community, the Alcaldes.”
Multiple sources tell us that the freshly cut rosewood is being loaded into trucks which are allegedly headed for a compound owned by GIV enterprises in Orange Walk. GIV is the company owned by the brother of Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega, which was given the sole right to export all rosewood confiscated by government before the amnesty.
So what ? It’s not as if this reporting will do anything or stop anything. even the minister in charger of the environment has given up. All we will do is complain, and not do anything about it. GIV knows this and its why this sort of thing still continues.
Hey the man has to stockpile enough money in his Cayman Bank Account so he can survive after we stupid Belizeans finally wqake up and remove him from office.
He will be a very rich man before that happens.
At least he must be paying his child maintainance now.
Forestry “can do nothing” only because there must be a high level minister running the rosewood theft. Who could that be?
Truth be told, the people, especially the local Mayans CAN do something [UNLESS THEIR LEADERS ARE BEING CORRUPTED, TOO!] by simply patrolling their forests and MAKING CITIZEN ARRESTS OF THE THIEVES.
That’s a Constitutional right all Belizeans possess. If the Mayans act to protect their communal resources, they should try to photograph or video the crimes before they make the arrests.