The Forest Department is on its second rosewood assessment exercise, and whereas the department intends to complete this $115,000 stocktaking exercise by early March, there are concerns that the situation has been allowed to persist for so long, that the rosewood stock in the Toledo District—fiercely targeted for export to China—has already been depleted to an unsustainable level.
Amandala has had a chance to read an intra-office memo prepared in August 2011 by Raul Chun, a forester of the Forest Department, which documents the previous assessment, laying out clear concerns—including gross underreporting of the quantity of rosewood actually harvested from the district.
The memo chronicles what transpired during an assessment commissioned on August 12, 2011. The Chun memo claims that “…a major discrepancy existed between the figures resulting from measurement from my team and those figures obtained by Machaca, when it came to the stamped flitches. It was noted that petty permit #70/2011 charged for 11.9 tons and the figures we got was 80.2 tons.” (The difference is almost 7-fold.)
The officer said he attempted to sort out the discrepancy, but it appears that up to the time of the report, there were still concerns over the figures.
There are concerns over the unsustainable extraction of rosewood and high levels of illegal activities tied with the logging operations, and some experts in the field have contended for a moratorium until the matter is sorted out.
Allegations have also been made against Forest Department staff at the Machaca station, claiming that they have been facilitating the raping of the Toledo forests. A move by the Forest Department to change the staff at that station and replace them with others was aborted, allegedly when the Ministry of Natural Resources stepped in.
Speaking with Amandala today, Thursday, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Beverly Castillo, said that the transfer of the officer in charge was rescinded because he appealed, citing personal reasons.
Asked about the two other officers who were supposed to be transferred to Toledo, Castillo said that as a general trend, public servants resist moves to transfer them to PG.
We asked Castillo why a moratorium has not been put into effect, and she told us that this would have to come as a policy stance from Central Government via Cabinet. No such policy decision has been taken, said Castillo. She also said that a moratorium would backfire, because there would be spinoff illegal activity elsewhere, which could be triggered in places such as the Mountain Pine Ridge and northern Belize.
The fact is, the illegal extraction of rosewood continues. We asked Castillo what measures the government has put in place to stem the tide of illegal activity and her response was that they are hoping that the presence of assessment teams in Toledo, as a part of the rosewood stocktaking exercise, would discourage illegal activity.
She also told us that they are looking to increase the staff level in Punta Gorda. She also talked of the possibility of a reforestation program.
In a proposal that the Forest Department submitted in January to the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT), which has provided $50,000 funding for the assessment, it said: “The exportation of rosewood has increased drastically over the past eighteen months due to an increased demand of this species by the Asian market which generally purchase the material in raw form for value-added work to be done in the low-wage Asian market. In Belize, rosewood is extracted by Mayan Villagers and converted to flitch form and sold.”
The figures indicate that the Maya villages Jacintoville and Colombia lead in rosewood production.
The Maya Leaders Alliance, in a statement released on August 11, 2011, captioned, “FOREST DEPARTMENT FAILS ON ITS PROMISE: Rose Wood Exploitation Continues,” the leaders said: “We recognize that our communities have been manipulated to leap for this rash economic opportunity and in these ever challenging times – how can we blame them?”
It added that, “Even more seriously is its intention to subvert a people’s way of life through manipulation, a direct violation against equality, justice and discrimination of a group of people. We make no apology to say that we recognize this move as an effort to rape our lands of its wealth before even imagining ceding to the judgments of the courts.”
Castillo noted that the Natural Resources officials had been invited to a meeting on Saturday with alcaldes and village council chairmen of more than 30 Maya villages, at which Forest Department officials were being asked to come prepared to provide information and answer queries from the leaders about the rosewood issue. However, Castillo said, the Ministry’s position is that they won’t be able to participate in such a meeting until the rosewood assessment is finished.
“According to the published studies, Southern Belize is the only place on the globe where the rosewood species (Dalbergia stevensonii) is known to occur, and in an area of approximately 360,000 acres,” said the Forest Department proposal. “Rosewood extraction continues unabated. Over the past eighteen (18) months (mid 2010-present) 840,000 board feet of rosewood has been exported. Exportation numbers exceed permitted material….”
The current assessment, slated to take 8 weeks, will cover 127 plots installed and measured throughout the District. There should be 2 teams of 5 Forest Department personnel.
Non-government organizations, The Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE), The Sarstoon-Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) and Ya’axché Conservation Trust (YCT) have been provided with the project proposal, since the department is soliciting the help of the NGO community.
Amandala has received information that YCT has raised concerns to Castillo, via an electronic letter, regarding the rosewood inventory. Where exactly will the surveys take place? Can this be shown on a detailed map? YCT is also suggesting a refinement of the methodology. And they have asked for the raw data to be shared with them.
Castillo told us, however, that since YCT, if it participates, would have a representative on the ground, during the assessment exercise, they would be able to log the data themselves for independent assessment. She furthermore indicated that although YCT has had the proposal since late January, this is the first she is hearing of concerns with the methodology.
For its part, YCT has taken the position that it won’t be participating in the rosewood inventory until the concerns are addressed.
Lisel Alamilla, Executive Director, Ya’axché Conservation Trust, told Castillo in the letter that “…whilst an assessment of stocks has the potential to provide useful information regarding future sustainable management of the species, it does nothing to address the immediate problem of continued unsustainable, unmonitored logging activity.”
The rosewood project proposal
(Forest Department)
• The Forest Department is seeking funding to conduct a rosewood inventory in the area it is known to exist; area is limited and estimated at 360,000 acres within the Toledo District.
• Stock-take should be done in national lands; areas such as private land and lease land or other recognized forms of land-tenure can be excluded since FD does not necessarily have the legal jurisdiction to prohibit land clearing or felling in these areas.
• Zones will be identified and inventoried, take and no-take zones will determine if extraction can take place once it is determined that these areas can sustain logging and licenses issued for rosewood extraction.