Portable Sawmill, Heavy Equipment Seized in Forest Reserve Operation

Protecting Belize’s forests is dangerous work, and a recent operation inside the Sibun Forest Reserve is showing just how risky it can be. A Forest Department officer was reportedly threatened after authorities uncovered an illegal logging operation deep within the reserve. Over three days, officers found freshly harvested lumber, a portable sawmill and heavy machinery believed to be tied to the activity. One suspect was detained as Forest Department personnel and police from the Mobile Interdiction Unit moved in to secure evidence and assess the scale of the operation. Sustainable Development Minister Orlando Habet says the case is deeply troubling and points to the growing challenges officers face in defending Belize’s protected areas.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“I have gotten a verbal report from the forest officer, and accordingly she had already received a call and threatened – threats to her life. This has all been occasion because we have stepped up since last year October on the compliance side of the Forest Department, where we are trying to see how we can curb and slow down and hopefully eliminate the illegal logging activities. But also remember that we had also said that we put a moratorium on those early logging licenses because those are the areas, those are the licenses that we found out were really depleting our forests. But the illegal logging is a major problem. But because we have been cracking down on it severely, and I think now the threats are starting to come into the department because it has been the livelihood for some of these illegal loggers for many years. But it hasn’t been there hasn’t been a program where we have really targeted them and tried to stop it.”

 

Shane Williams

“Is there anything being done for– to, to protect these forest officers more? Because as you said, they are cracking down on these illegal activities.”

 

Orlando Habet

“Yes, certainly. I have had a conversation with the new minister of responsible for the police. I also mentioned it to the Prime Minister in the last cabinet meeting, and he called the minister along with me, and the former minister who was there with me, Minister Kareem Musa. And we identified a unit which will be able to work along with the forest officers. And they will have to form a group, a task force, to be able to plan it. Because you can’t really mention that you’re going on this venture to seek out the illegal loggers on a certain day at a certain time, because you don’t have that information. We go out and so when you get there, there’s nothing, or they have already moved out the logs because they have been advised before time.”

 

Marco Tulio Garcia has been named in the report. Forestry officers, backed by the Mobile Interdiction Unit, visited his home in Armenia Village and seized several pieces of heavy-duty machinery linked to the illegal logging site. Garcia is no stranger to forestry offenses. In 2017, he was charged for illegally harvesting logwood.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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