Deep inside the Chiquibul with joint forces
Illegal logging activities continue unabated in the Chiquibul. This past Friday, the Chiquibul Joint Enforcement Unit, comprising of Friends of Conservation and Development rangers, B.D.F. and police personnel, surprised a group of loggers well inside Belizean territory in what is called the zone of influence. According to FCD which co-manages the area the group of loggers had chainsaws and firearms when they were spotted in the Tunkul area, ten kilometers from the western border, which is an active zone for illegal logging. One member of the group was apprehended and handed over to police. News Five's Andrea Polanco reports.
Andrea Polanco, Reporting
Just south west of the Caracol Archaeological Reserve, the unit heard chainsaws cutting down trees in the forest. From this video footage you will hear the chainsaws working, as the unit heads into the zone of influence.
But before reaching the zone of influence, the unit encounters this fourteen year old Guatemalan boy on a trail where he was extracting xate. The Guatemalan minor had in his possession, three horses with twelve thousand xate leaves. The minor told the unit that he was cutting the leaves from the Monkey Tail River, which is some thirty five kilometers inside Belize. He says he doesn't engage in logging and claims ownership of the horses:
Guatemalan Minor, Found Collecting Xate in Belize (Translated)
"Those are mine. That is mine. My dad bought them."
Arriving into the zone of impact, the unit discovered this chainsaw still powered on cutting through a log after some six to seven Guatemalan loggers fled the scene. But twenty year old twenty year old Evelio Adelso Romero was left behind and was caught logging illegally. He had in his possession a weapon and ammunition. He says he is aware that he is logging in Belize because he needs to survive. He is paid to a hundred and twenty five quetzales a day to cut and transport the logs to the capital:
Evelio Adelso Romero
Evelio Adelso Romero
"I do it because it is a necessity to work. It is hard to receive work and to maintain my family. The wood will go to the Capital. I don't sell wood so I don't know the name of the buyers. They pay me one hundred and twenty-five quetzal for the day."
Reporting for News Five, I am Andrea Polanco.
The Chiquibul Forest Joint Enforcement Unit personnel estimated that there were at least 8 persons operating in the area, armed with firearms and equipped with chainsaws. Romero was transferred from Tunkul and handed over to the San Ignacio Police. It is expected that he will be charged for possession of an unlicensed firearm, unlicensed ammunition, illegal logging and illegal entry.
Channel 5
Chiquibul cheated of US $8M
Belize has lost more than US$8 million in timber and xate to Guatemalans encroaching on Belizean land, declared Rafael Manzanero, Executive Director of Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD), in a press conference at the Radisson Fort George Hotel on Wednesday, November 16.
Manzanero said the situation is urgent as the encroachments have spread into key areas such as the Chiquibul National Park, the Chiquibul Forest Reserve and the Caracol Archaelogical Reserve in the Cayo district.
He called on the Government of Belize to send reinforcements of Police and Belize Defence Force soldiers to hotspot areas to establish joint conservation posts.
Presently the FCD park wardens patrol the protected areas in joint patrols with BDF. Manzanero also recommended that government strengthen these joint force units with additional personnel, equipment and training to demonstrate a credible deterrence to the incursions by illegal loggers and poachers.
Manzanero said the authorities need to set out a clear policy and mandate how to deal with cross-border environmental crimes.
He recommended that the regulatory agencies and other stakeholders synchronize their roles to build up cooperation programs with Guatemala, such as the concept of a Peace Park.
Chiquibul National Park Manager Derric Chan cited the case of Rigoberto Gutierrez, a Guatemalan who has been ranching inside the Chiquibul Park for the past five years.
He said Gutierrez's house is some 50 meters inside Belize, but his ranch extends over 25 acres, all of which is inside Belizean territory.
He is raising cattle and farming crops. Chan said they have clear evidence of who is responsible as 13 Guatemalans were detained last year in the park and another 11 have been detained so far this year; some were as deep as 22 kilometers inside Belizean terrain.
He noted that the Guatemalans use horses to carry out their ill-gotten gains, and while they captured 14 horses last year, they have captured 32 horses so far this year, indicating a rising trend of incursions.
Chan said these illegal visitors are harvesting xate illegally, logging illegally, hunting game for food, and poaching the nests of the scarlet macaw parrot.
FCD research coordinator Boris Arevalo cited numbers which show an exponential increase. Whereas in 1987 they detected 113 hectares which had been cleared by illegal logging and farming activities, the encroachment increased by 92 hectares by 1994, but a more recent survey in 2007 showed 4,462 hectares cleared.
By 2009 this had grown to 4682 hectares and this year it's now 4,931 hectares to date.
Joint BDF/Police patrols have detained 24 Guatemalans in the Chiquibul over the past 2 years.
These marauders are also poaching scarlet macaw nests. They raided some 50% of the 38 nests monitored by FCD wardens in 2008. Last year they raided 47.4% of the nests monitored. But this year the poachers raided 88.9% of the nests.
Only one nest had fledglings. Some nests are near the Chalillo lake, but others are along the Raspaculo and upper Macal River. Poachers have to walk as much as 60 km to skirt hills and streams to reach the nests.
Arevalo also estimated the value of the wood, cedar and mahogany removed by illegal loggers, at some 8,765 cubic meters. From the Caracol Reserve alone the value of the mahogany removed is US$1,278,885; from the entire zone in which illegal logging is taking place he estimated the total value of mahogany removed at US$4,022,676 in value. The same is true of cedar; he estimated some 2,913 cubic meters had been removed from the Caracol reserve with an estimated value of $1,142,102.
For the total area in which illegal logging is occurring he estimated 9,164.85 cubic meters of cedar had been extracted, with a value of US$3,601,865. When totaled, this added up to US$2,423,987 stolen from the Caracol Archaeological Reserve and US$7,624,541 from the total zone of the loggers' influence.
The poachers are also harvesting xate illegally. Arevalo estimated that at least 37.8 million leaves had been harvested, with a minimum value of BZD$1 million.
In total this is over US$8.11 million in forest products stolen. This value does not include the stolen macaw fledglings, nor the game such as gibnut and pheasants killed for food.
He noted that the poachers would also destroy cameras used by scientific researchers to monitor jaguar nocturnal movements, since these cameras also caught images of xateros at work.
Amandala