PM Says Hon. Alamilla Accepts Rosewood Should Not Have Been Burnt
And it is also precious in Belize - though not widely available. Make no mistake, Rosewood is a prized local hardwood - and though the domestic market can't pay Chinese type money for it - it is much sought after. And that's probably why there's been so much public uproar over the burning of a thousand flitches that happened a week ago. Forestry Minister Lisel Alamilla has been alternately praised and pilloried bold action. And somewhere between those two extremes is where we found the Prime Minister. Monica Bodden asked him today what he thinks of the incineration:..
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"She has said to me and to Cabinet that if she had to do it all over again she would do it differently. I understand what motivated her. I understand her feeling that if she had tried to sell the rosewood the only people who have the export connections are the same people that she suspects are engaging in the illegal trade. If she had tried to keep the lumber stored somewhere, no doubt mice would have gotten at it, so I sympathized but quite honestly I would have wished that that had not been done."
And later on we'll have more from the PM when Monica asks him about the gunshots fired at Said Musa's home. But first, we'll consult the weather report to see how long the cold front will be hanging around.
Rosewood Under Lock!
Tonight two 20 foot containers of Rosewood remain impounded at the Forestry Department in Belmopan pending investigation.
As we reported, those containers were discovered yesterday evening at the compound of Belize Engineering - which is right next to Customs headquarters in Belize City. The Forestry Department, the CIB, Customs and BAHA responded to the information that the Rosewood was being held there - likely awaiting shipment. This is taken by the authorities to be a violation on the moratorium on Rosewood extraction and exportation because the hundreds of flitches had no official stamp from the Forestry Department. Additionally, customs had only released the containers at the end of 2012 - well after the moratorium went into effect.
And so, yesterday evening, Forestry quickly took both containers to Belmopan for safe storage.
The other container that was discovered yesterday is a forty foot one with twenty-eight tons of rosewood flitches. That was found at the Belize-Guatemala Western Border. It was supposedly to be imported into Belize and then shipped out. But, authorities believe that the Rosewood originatd in Belize and was actually smuggled to the other side of the border - to make it seem like it was being imported. At any rate, Guatemala cannot export Rosewood in log form so that too is being held at the Western border.
And, in case there's any doubt what all the fuss and hustling is about, each of these containers has a value in the hundreds of thousands of US dollars. Rosewood is a precious and dear commodity in China.
Channel 7
ROSEWOOD, ROSEWOOD EVERYWHERE - AND IT'S ILLEGAL!!
In the past couple weeks the issue of illegal rosewood extraction has literally exploded into the public consciousness. Illegal rosewood shipments have been confiscated by Government, but to date, no one is in prison for the offence against our Belizean patrimony; in fact, no one has even been taken to court for the matter, and the Belizean public has not been told why.
Confiscated rosewood has disappeared out of a Government compound, and no one has been held accountable. Hon. Lisell Alamilla, whose portfolio includes Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, has publicly burned a number of confiscated rosewood logs to show her determination to put an end to the illegal trade, but the "burning" question remains as to why no one is in prison for the crime.
Today, officially, the Forestry Department and the Customs Department "are investigating the origin of a 40-foot container containing approximately 28 tons of rosewood flitches which is being held by the Belize Customs Department at the Belize-Guatemala Western Border. The container was being brought into Belize via the Western Border on Wednesday, January 16, 2013."
The information to Amandala is that 380 pieces of rosewood are being held at the Customs Department at the Western Border in Benque Viejo del Carmen.
The press release adds that the Forestry Department "is working with its counterpart in Guatemala and is awaiting confirmation on the origin and legitimacy of the rosewood material. Guatemala has imposed a restriction on the exportation of rosewood in the log forms (flitches), sawn wood and veneer sheets."
This particular rosewood situation differs from the others that made news over the past few weeks. This situation is not a bust on the wood, but rather the transfer of a container of wood being delayed until the arrival of documentation to confirm the place of origin of the wood. The container did come from Guatemala; that fact is not being disputed. The issue in question, is from where exactly did the wood come?
There is a suspicion that the wood was extracted from forests in Belize, and was, to avoid trouble due to our moratorium on the product, transported to Guatemala, and brought back to Belize to look as if it was shipped from Guatemala.
Lorian Frazer, Customs Clerk One in the investigations department of Customs at the Western Border, said that he was aware of the illegal extraction of rosewood in Belize, and when he found out what the contents of the container were, it was decided that some documentation was necessary. Frazer said he reported to work after the shipment came in yesterday, Wednesday.
"Yesterday a trailer came into the compound from Guatemala and they requested it to be transferred into the shipper's container because it came in a trailer, from a Guatemalan trailer," he said.
Frazer said that it was not an unusual request for foreign shipments to be transferred to Belizean containers.
"Normally cargo that comes in Guatemalan trailers are transferred to some local trucks because foreign trucks aren't allowed to go into Belize, unless they are specialized cargo, and since this shipment is destined for, or intransit, when the shipper's container arrived and the Guatemalan trailer loaded into the shipper's container so that the trailer could return to Guatemala," he said.
The container of wood is being held at the border in custody of the Customs Department until the shipper presents certification of origin for the wood. Frazer said that there is no timeframe given to shippers to present such a type of documentation.
"The protocol would be, well he's basically on his time," Frazer said. "If he doesn't produce what we're asking, then his shipment doesn't go anywhere. The shipment is within his interest. The goods just won't go if they don't meet what we're requiring."
Frazer said that he does not know who the shipper of the container is. He said that the container arrived and they just honored the request to ship it. The only information on the invoice for the container is where the shipment came from, where it is going, and what the contents are.
For the readers who do not know how a broker operates, a broker doing transshipment must receive a manifesto for the shipment entering into Belize and produce an export-entry permit. However, for an intransit shipment, a permit is not always necessary, because Belize is not the final destination for the goods. That was the case in this situation, with the container being transported. The final destination stated on the invoice is China.
Policarpio Manzanero was the broker responsible for the shipment after it arrived at the border. Anwar Hegar was the employee for the broker present at the border to take the shipment.
"My responsibility is getting all the merchandise here to be imported into Belize legally," Hegar said. "So we have to do the paperwork for everything. We need to get the invoice and the cost of departure and the export-entry from Guatemala, so we can start to do our paperwork for the process for everything to be legal, so everything could be duty paid into Belize."
Hegar said that when he went in to Customs, he informed the officers that he was there to pick up a shipment of lumber and when asked what type of lumber, he said rosewood. He said that he only knew what information was already told to him about the shipment.
"I really can't say too much, because yesterday, I came and the truck was parked in the compound and when I came here the trucker, the Guatemalan trucker, he came in and gave me the papers for processing the paperwork. So that's the only thing I could tell you," he said.
Hegar said that after being told that he could not take the shipment, he contacted Manzanero in Belize City, who said that he was going to tell a person, only identified by the name "Cawich," that a certificate of origin was needed in order for the shipment to be cleared.
Hegar said that he did not know the name or location of the company requesting the shipment, other than it is a Chinese company. Hegar said it was his boss' first time working with the company. He said that he had shipped other type of woods before, but that it was the first time he saw a shipment of rosewood.
"Back in the years, a gentleman was bringing in lumber, but not like this," he said. "It's already chipped into pieces, but not like this. This is the first time we're dealing with this and we're trying to get everything legally so it could come into Belize."
Hegar said that he did not have permission to provide any contact information for either Manzanero or Cawich.
Frazer said that the wood being held at the western border will neither be shipped to China nor taken back to Guatemala. It cannot go back to Guatemala because it has already been declared by Customs, and it cannot go to China until it is proven by proper documentation that the wood is not from Belize.
It is only hoped that the wood will not go "missing" from the Customs compound before the authorities find out where the wood really came from. Frazer said that the persons charged to look after the wood must be trusted to ensure that that will not happen.
"The property is manned by watchmen and Customs are here 24 hours; the gates are padlocked, so I guess you have to base it on the people working, the integrity of the people working," he said.
According to the invoice that came along with the shipment, the wood was intransit heading for exportation to its final destination, China. It has been said that the rosewood is in high demand in China. It is also believed that most, if not all, of the illegally harvested rosewood which has been found before in Belize were for shipment to China.
Yes, there have been several busts of illegally harvested rosewood. Yes, Minister Alamilla has made her statement against the illegal harvesting of the wood by burning hundreds of pieces of rosewood that were found just last week. However, the question still remains, who is behind all of this illegal rosewood harvesting? And to add to that, could this container of rosewood be the set of wood that went missing from government property in December 2012? If the rosewood at the Western Border turns out to be rosewood from Belize, how did the wood get to Guatemala? And how much more wood is probably over the Guatemalan border waiting to be shipped as if it came from Guatemala, in an effort to evade the official Belize moratorium on the harvesting of our precious rosewood?
ILLEGAL BELIZE ROSEWOOD SURFACES�FROM GUATEMALA?
Guatemala has a restriction on the exportation of rosewood in log form, and Belize has a moratorium on the product, so where did the rosewood at the Western Border come from?
In the past couple weeks the issue of illegal rosewood extraction has literally exploded into the public consciousness. Illegal rosewood shipments have been confiscated by Government, but to date, no one is in prison for the offence against our Belizean patrimony; in fact, no one has even been taken to court for the matter, and the Belizean public has not been told why.
Confiscated rosewood has disappeared out of a Government compound, and no one has been held accountable. Hon. Lisell Alamilla, whose portfolio includes Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development, has publicly burned a number of confiscated rosewood logs to show her determination to put an end to the illegal trade, but the "burning" question remains as to why no one is in prison for the crime.
Today, officially, the Forestry Department and the Customs Department "are investigating the origin of a 40-foot container containing approximately 28 tons of rosewood flitches which is being held by the Belize Customs Department at the Belize-Guatemala Western Border. The container was being brought into Belize via the Western Border on Wednesday, January 16, 2013."
The information to Amandala is that 380 pieces of rosewood are being held at the Customs Department at the Western Border in Benque Viejo del Carmen.
The press release adds that the Forestry Department "is working with its counterpart in Guatemala and is awaiting confirmation on the origin and legitimacy of the rosewood material. Guatemala has imposed a restriction on the exportation of rosewood in the log forms (flitches), sawn wood and veneer sheets."
This particular rosewood situation differs from the others that made news over the past few weeks. This situation is not a bust on the wood, but rather the transfer of a container of wood being delayed until the arrival of documentation to confirm the place of origin of the wood. The container did come from Guatemala; that fact is not being disputed. The issue in question, is from where exactly did the wood come?
There is a suspicion that the wood was extracted from forests in Belize, and was, to avoid trouble due to our moratorium on the product, transported to Guatemala, and brought back to Belize to look as if it was shipped from Guatemala.
Lorian Frazer, Customs Clerk One in the investigations department of Customs at the Western Border, said that he was aware of the illegal extraction of rosewood in Belize, and when he found out what the contents of the container were, it was decided that some documentation was necessary. Frazer said he reported to work after the shipment came in yesterday, Wednesday.
"Yesterday a trailer came into the compound from Guatemala and they requested it to be transferred into the shipper's container because it came in a trailer, from a Guatemalan trailer," he said.
Frazer said that it was not an unusual request for foreign shipments to be transferred to Belizean containers.
"Normally cargo that comes in Guatemalan trailers are transferred to some local trucks because foreign trucks aren't allowed to go into Belize, unless they are specialized cargo, and since this shipment is destined for, or intransit, when the shipper's container arrived and the Guatemalan trailer loaded into the shipper's container so that the trailer could return to Guatemala," he said.
The container of wood is being held at the border in custody of the Customs Department until the shipper presents certification of origin for the wood. Frazer said that there is no timeframe given to shippers to present such a type of documentation.
"The protocol would be, well he's basically on his time," Frazer said. "If he doesn't produce what we're asking, then his shipment doesn't go anywhere. The shipment is within his interest. The goods just won't go if they don't meet what we're requiring."
Frazer said that he does not know who the shipper of the container is. He said that the container arrived and they just honored the request to ship it. The only information on the invoice for the container is where the shipment came from, where it is going, and what the contents are.
For the readers who do not know how a broker operates, a broker doing transshipment must receive a manifesto for the shipment entering into Belize and produce an export-entry permit. However, for an intransit shipment, a permit is not always necessary, because Belize is not the final destination for the goods. That was the case in this situation, with the container being transported. The final destination stated on the invoice is China.
Policarpio Manzanero was the broker responsible for the shipment after it arrived at the border. Anwar Hegar was the employee for the broker present at the border to take the shipment.
"My responsibility is getting all the merchandise here to be imported into Belize legally," Hegar said. "So we have to do the paperwork for everything. We need to get the invoice and the cost of departure and the export-entry from Guatemala, so we can start to do our paperwork for the process for everything to be legal, so everything could be duty paid into Belize."
Hegar said that when he went in to Customs, he informed the officers that he was there to pick up a shipment of lumber and when asked what type of lumber, he said rosewood. He said that he only knew what information was already told to him about the shipment.
"I really can't say too much, because yesterday, I came and the truck was parked in the compound and when I came here the trucker, the Guatemalan trucker, he came in and gave me the papers for processing the paperwork. So that's the only thing I could tell you," he said.
Hegar said that after being told that he could not take the shipment, he contacted Manzanero in Belize City, who said that he was going to tell a person, only identified by the name "Cawich," that a certificate of origin was needed in order for the shipment to be cleared.
Hegar said that he did not know the name or location of the company requesting the shipment, other than it is a Chinese company. Hegar said it was his boss' first time working with the company. He said that he had shipped other type of woods before, but that it was the first time he saw a shipment of rosewood.
"Back in the years, a gentleman was bringing in lumber, but not like this," he said. "It's already chipped into pieces, but not like this. This is the first time we're dealing with this and we're trying to get everything legally so it could come into Belize."
Hegar said that he did not have permission to provide any contact information for either Manzanero or Cawich.
Frazer said that the wood being held at the western border will neither be shipped to China nor taken back to Guatemala. It cannot go back to Guatemala because it has already been declared by Customs, and it cannot go to China until it is proven by proper documentation that the wood is not from Belize.
It is only hoped that the wood will not go "missing" from the Customs compound before the authorities find out where the wood really came from. Frazer said that the persons charged to look after the wood must be trusted to ensure that that will not happen.
"The property is manned by watchmen and Customs are here 24 hours; the gates are padlocked, so I guess you have to base it on the people working, the integrity of the people working," he said.
According to the invoice that came along with the shipment, the wood was intransit heading for exportation to its final destination, China. It has been said that the rosewood is in high demand in China. It is also believed that most, if not all, of the illegally harvested rosewood which has been found before in Belize were for shipment to China.
Yes, there have been several busts of illegally harvested rosewood. Yes, Minister Alamilla has made her statement against the illegal harvesting of the wood by burning hundreds of pieces of rosewood that were found just last week. However, the question still remains, who is behind all of this illegal rosewood harvesting? And to add to that, could this container of rosewood be the set of wood that went missing from government property in December 2012? If the rosewood at the Western Border turns out to be rosewood from Belize, how did the wood get to Guatemala? And how much more wood is probably over the Guatemalan border waiting to be shipped as if it came from Guatemala, in an effort to evade the official Belize moratorium on the harvesting of our precious rosewood?
Amandala
Recommendations to end the illegal extraction of rosewood
Coc also made recommendations on how to proceed to put an end to the illegal extraction of the natural resource.
Via Phone: Cristina Coc, Spokesperson, Maya Leaders Alliance
"We are asking the ministry and the minister in particular to launch an inquiry into this situation; to establish a sound investigating team who will find out who is involved. And it doesn't matter who these people are. Whether they are political officials, whether they are officers in various departments and ministries; whether they are locals, whether they are foreign developers-all that is involved in crime need to be brought to justice. And that investigation needs to be made public not only to the Mayan communities, but Belizeans in general. Second, we want to call an immediate halt an immediate revocation of the concession that is current for Hilmar Alamilla given the situation that transpired just last weekend in Golden Stream. We would also like to know who the agent developers are and have that made public. 
But we want to state that the government needs to recognize the Supreme Court's decision and the standing injunction and needs to ensure that all government ministries are respecting that injunction. Third, I wanna state here that it is only through the assistance of the local leaders, the Alcaldes, who have been made these reports time and time again-it is not forest officers that are going out there finding that there is illegal logging happening; it is our very own traditional leaders who are monitoring, who are taking care of our lands, that have reported time and time again. And if it wasn't for their reports, nobody-this wouldn't come to light-nobody would know that this is happening."
Coc says that if the rosewood was not set on fire, it more than likely would have ended back into the hands of the agent.
Channel 5
AmbergrisCaye.com 
Last night, 7News told you about that big rosewood bust in the Village of Golden Stream in the Toledo District. Currently, it is illegal to extract rosewood, and nobody should have any license to do it because of the indefinite moratorium which hangs over the trade.
"What we are doing today is burning the rosewood that we confiscated on Wednesday night`. My ministry has had enough; enough is enough. We have been battling this rosewood business for the last 9 months since I assume office and we have not been able to put a dent into the rosewood illegal logging and so we want a clear message sent to everyone who is involved in this rosewood business that their moratorium stands."
"What we are planning is to with immediate effect is to lay charges against the licensee, in this case Mr. Alamillla. I do realize that on Wednesday night that there were other individuals which can easily be identifiable through the footage that the media gathered and we are also proceeding to lay charges against those individuals. Our plan is to make sure that we do not have a re-occurrence of this particular incident and we want to impress on the court and I hope it does come across fairly well that there are a lot of assets that could actually be seized and that is our intention. Not only the rosewood but also all the other assets that are actually from within this particular this compound and which also belongs to the licensee."
"I feel happy about it because you know these people we can show them that they are wrong doing should be stop of doing this kinds of things because we have start from a long time telling them you dint have license - you should do this. You have license for secondary but not with rosewood but you see they have been selling a lot of rosewood in the night and this is what I told them; is the law change that you can go and cut rosewood in the night? I want to find out who is doing this and I have call the minister because the law is still there. When I call for help from the police and the forestry man - they were vexed with me because they know that maybe I am hurting them. With them - they know what's happening but they can't say it in front of you, so when now when I called the Minister and the Minister responded yes we will look into it and now I am very happy she is here to look what is happening. We are not lying."
that there were two containers in Belize Engineering yard that had rosewood in it and we contacted Police, Customs, BAHA and all the law enforcement agencies and it was so we actually had a 20' and 40' container that we took to our compound and when we off load it, it was a total of about 15,000 board feet that we were of rosewood that we were able to document. That particular exporter goes by the name of Kambokin. The two persons that registered that particular company - I can only recall the name of one; it's Pererra. In this particular instance we have only manage to make contact through the broker Mr. Raul Cawich. It's through him and with the DPP we are working to see how we can make contact with the actual owner of the material."
"We haven't decided yet what we will do because we continue to find rosewood. In fact there are regular reports and we are confiscating 20-30 flitches at a time, so the amount of rosewood that we have on our hands are increasing almost on a weekly basis and we definitely have to put something forward to Cabinet for them to consider. So that decision won't lie with just my ministry."
