Belizean authorities have busted a band of 16 Guatemalan xatéros who were suspected to have harvested over 70,000 leaves in late March from areas in Belize where xaté harvesting is prohibited under law. While stories of Guatemalan xatéros plundering Belizean natural resources are not new, Forest Department’s Acting Chief, Marcelo Windsor, told our newspaper that this is the first time that they have had to penalize a Belizean to whom the department had given a license to harvest xaté from the forest.
That Belizean has been identified as Rueben Hernandez of Cotton Tree Village, who the department had given a concession to extract xaté in the Swasey Bladen Forest Reserve, but not inside the xaté-rich Bladen Nature Reserve and the adjacent Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, where the xatéros are said to have stripped large areas of vegetation.
Conservationists who patrol the area reported that several square miles of the Bladen Nature Reserve in Toledo and several hills in the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary had been stripped of vegetation in the process. Moreover, the xaté leaves were removed from an estimated 18,000 plants in a manner that is clearly not sustainable, and some plants were reported to have been entirely stripped of their leaves, meaning that they will quickly die without producing more leaves for harvest.
There is massive pressure on xaté resources around this time of the year, and this adds further fuel to an already nagging crisis of incursions into Belizean territory.
Xaté is a popular palm in the US and Europe especially around Easter and other holidays, as it is said to be used widely for decorations, and the leaves attract a premium price around this time. Local estimates say the xaté leaves – 26 bales, each with 70 bundles of leaves, totaling 72,800 leaves – are valued at nearly BZ$5,000.
Nathaniel Miller, Protected Areas Manager of Bladen Nature Reserve, for the Ya’axché Conservation Trust (YCT), reported to our newspaper that while rangers were on a multi-agency patrol that included the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE), the Forest Department and police, they nabbed about 16 xatéros.
Reports to our newspaper are that they were all undocumented Guatemalans, accused of stealing xaté from inside a nature reserve, where it is illegal for them to cut leaves.
The band of xatéros were apprehended at “Matacion,” a location between Trio Village and the Bladen Nature Reserve, and taken to the Independence Police Station, and the xaté was confiscated, said Miller.
YCT also reports that the men were charged and fined. However, there were earlier reports to our newspaper, as well as to YCT, that the xatéros were not fined but allowed to leave with their leaves.
Today, the official story from the Forestry Department is, however, that they were fined in court. The Belizean licensee now faces a surcharge of three times the value of the xaté.
When we asked Windsor what the surcharge amounts to in dollars and cents, he said that he did not know the figure, and similarly he told us that he could not tell us what the fines levied against the xatéros are.
We know that previous violations by xatéros have resulted in fines of $500 for illegal harvesting under the Wildlife Protection Act.
In addition, there are other concerns that the xatéros did not have valid work permits or any form of documentation when they were apprehended in Belize, and one source notes that even though the xatéros had work permits as of March 23, they admitted to having been in the country working on March 17.
Conservationists express concerns that the Forestry Department did not rescind the license of the Belizean under whose license the infractions occurred, and further raise alarm over allegations that the xaté was released back to the licensee and the xatéros released.
Amandala attempted to get official information from the Dangriga Magistrate’s Court and Independence police today to determine if any fines were paid, how much, and when; however, we were told that the people who could answer our questions were not in office.
According to Miller of YCT, on Monday, March 23, the xatéros approached the Bladen Nature Reserve Ranger base and presented a license to harvest xaté in surrounding forest reserves. They left the area when rangers told them they could not work inside the nature reserve, but it seems that the xatéros returned when the rangers were not looking and harvested a huge batch of leaves.
It was not until two whole days after the xatéros were encountered in the area that two patrols which included Police and Forest Department officials, along with 9 Ya’axché Conservation Trust personnel, busted them with the 26 bales, containing a grand total of 72,800 leaves.
It was later that the team realized that the xatéros were operating under a license issued to a Belizean man, allowing him to employ Guatemalans to harvest the leaves inside Belize.
Although they had been operating under a valid license for extracting xaté within nearby protected areas, they had no right to be extracting within Bladen or Cockscomb, says YCT.
It added that, “…the Forest Department reacted fast by questioning the concessionaire, from Cotton Tree Village, who admitted that some of his Guatemalan employees may have collected xaté outside of their concession.”
We understand that YCT rangers found the camps of the xatéros inside the Bladen Nature Reserve, along the Bladen River, but furthermore, the Guatemalans had admitted, themselves, that they were inside the said nature reserve.
There are also anecdotal reports to conservationists that there were even more men (than the 16 who had been caught) harvesting xaté in the area. Those other men obviously escaped the arms of the law.
According to the Acting Chief Forestry Officer, Mr. Windsor, the Forestry Department has issued three licenses to Belizeans for the harvesting of xaté, but those licenses specify where harvesting should take place, and specify areas such as the Sibun River Forest Reserve, the Manatee Forest Reserve, the Chiquibul Forest Reserve.
He said that there are also controls in place to manage the harvesting of xaté, and xatéros are expected to report to forest officers in the field, who would document the size, quality and quantity of xaté leaves harvested and the areas from which they are taken. Windsor told us that only two of the licenses are in operation.
This notwithstanding, there are clearly concerns that local authorities are unable to keep xaté harvesting activities in check, and it is obvious that someone illegally taking out xaté from Belize will avoid those forest officers at all cost.
Windsor said that while illegal xate harvesting by Guatemalans is known to be common, this is the first time that a Belizean licensee has been slapped for violations by his workers.
Conservationists speculate that the incursion inside the xaté-rich Bladen Nature Reserve was, in their view, not accidental, because the Forestry Department gave licenses for a concession area that covers the Maya Mountain Forest Reserve and adjacent Swasey Bladen Forest Reserve, when the latter is an expanse of pine savannah that doesn’t have xaté leaves. They also conclude that the similarity in the names of the two sites – Swasey Bladen Forest Reserve and the Bladen Nature Reserve – creates deliberate confusion, and could be used a defense by encroachers to argue that they are working where the Forestry Department has allowed them to work.