Lumber Shortage Causing Major Home Construction Delays

The growing shortage of hardwood lumber may seem like just a concern for sawmills and suppliers, but it is now threatening housing projects across Belize. Builders say demand is far outpacing supply, forcing contractors to scour the country in search of materials and, in some cases, delaying the construction of homes already ordered by customers. While larger logging operations continue to produce timber, smaller suppliers that many builders depend on have largely disappeared from the market which creates uncertainty for an industry that relies heavily on hardwood for durable, hurricane-resistant homes. In Spanish Lookout today, lumber suppliers and home builders described the challenges they are facing as the shortage deepens.

 

Scott Varro, Manager, Linda Vista Lumber Yard

“There is a struggle to fill lumber orders and lumber needs not just for people around in our area, but it is countrywide. We have guys visiting from north to south looking for lumber for building resorts, furniture, you name it. Any kind of lumber need all over, there is definitely a noticeable shortage.”

 

Ronny Plett, Manager Plett’s Home Builders

“ We actually have multiple homes right now that are on order. There’s a house I was supposed to start today for a customer, and I just can’t source the lumber. Now, I have been informed there are major companies in Belize who still are logging. Again, they’re big enough and wealthy enough and perhaps, as we know in Belize, they have the right connections to get the permits that they need. And so there are… there is still logging ongoing in Belize, just to be clear. And some of them, like I said, I’m very thankful for because for example, Bull Ridge Logging, they’ve received very large long-term concession for the Chiquibul Reserve. I think that is as far as conservation goes and sustainable logging, that is absolutely the right, right approach. That’s a very wise move there. The big impact on our industry is that we don’t usually rely on the biggest providers. We rely on the smaller individual providers, and they’re the ones who are being shut down now. But yes, like you said, there’s literally houses that we have on order right now that I’m now having to see where in Belize I’m gonna source this hardwood because hardwood is a much more hurricane secure form of building.”

 

 

Landowners Forced to Destroy Hardwood Without Harvesting

 

Minister Orlando Habet says logging permits are still flowing, but people on the ground say otherwise. Lumber suppliers and landowners report growing difficulty getting approval to harvest trees, even on private land. They point to long delays and permit bottlenecks that are tightening an already scarce hardwood supply. Now, with demand rising, industry players warn that the red tape is adding more pressure on builders trying to keep projects on track.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“We have not stopped the issuance of permits and licenses for the cutting of logs in private lands. So most of them come in as temporary permits because they claim that, one, if they have, let’s say for example fifty acres and they want to log twenty-five out of that, they’re giving, given a permit to log twenty-five acres out of the fifty. There are some who have large tracts of land, and they get larger acreages for logging in their private lands. These logs are available, so these companies, the saw mills, have to contact these people who are getting the permits.”

 

Scott Varro, Manager, Linda Vista Lumber Yard

“They say there is no ban on private land logging, right? So there are still permits given out, but very slowly, very reluctantly people have stated far and wide. I was just speaking to a gentleman literally fifteen minutes ago who is trying to get a permit approved for private land in San Antonio Village. The owner has forty acres. He’s going to clear it for farming anyway, has nothing to do with Mennonites, right? So it is a private land that needs to be logged, and he’s trying to get permits because he’s going to clear it regardless. Forestry will not sign it. They’re dragging their feet for whatever reason. So this is one of dozens of cases that have happened this season. Farmers, different landowners trying to extract a few trees and they’re not getting approved. They’re not getting anything done, and so they end up just burning it, right? I’ve spoken to a guy from PG last week, same thing. A few trees, just trying to get it off a small plot. He couldn’t get it done. He said by, by a short while, fire came through and destroyed all the logs. I hear this over and over.”

 

Habet says the ministry is hoping that a crackdown on excessive and illegal logging combined with its Greening Belize Initiative of planting one million trees the logging industry will be saved for generations to come.

 

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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