On Sunday, Belize's national negotiating team departs for the OAS in Washington where they will hold talks with their Guatemalan counterparts.

Much is at stake as the differendum process is on the verge of collapse after the Guatemalans reacted irascibly to the BDF's shooting of a 'campesino' who was illegally harvesting the Xate leaf in Belizean territory. The very public flap that Guatemala's Foreign Minister Jorge Briz made about it has brought things decidedly to a head.

But you may be asking how could it all come down to this: years of diplomatic drama, the Ramphal/Reichler "rapproshmaw", the referendum ruse all now in the balance, because of the mysteriously powerful Xate leaf. So what is it about this leaf? Three months ago Alfonso Noble went to Guatemala to learn about a project that the British have set up to legally and productively harvest Xate so that it won't be stolen from Belize. Tonight we repeat that story that first aired in January to gain some context on the bedeviling plant, which has come to the forefront of the negotiations.

Alfonso Noble Reporting,
The most many of us know about Xate is that it is the reason why many Guatemalans make their way into out forests to retrieve it. But what is it really?

This is it: a palm of three varieties elegance, fishtail and jade. It enjoys lucrative markets in Europe, the U.S. and Japan where the plant is highly sought after because it stays green for more than a month making it a valued commodity in cold climates with neutered environments. The high demand for the palm has Guatemalans in the Peten area of that country making their way into the jungles and retrieving it which means making illegal incursions into Belizean territory.

Translation,
"Up until now all the Xate that is commercialized in Guatemala comes from the wild."

"The communities in this part of Guatemala live in abject poverty which pressures them into going into Belizean territory even when knowing they could be detained in Belize. They cross the border and cut the product illegally. It's poverty that forces these things to happen."

"For the economy of Peten residents this is of utmost importance. For about 45 years some 5000 families have benefited from this product in such a way that because of the scarcity of the product in Guatemala they choose to go into Belizean territory to cut it."

Representative, Just World Partners
"It has caused a certain amount of damage to the natural resources. Obviously the traffickers are going further and further into Belize. At last count I think were 48 kilometers into Belize so it has been a problem. There are something like 90 Guatemalans in jail in Belize for stealing natural resources."

To minimize and in fact stop these types of incidents from re-occurring "Just World Partners," a British funded Guatemalan NGO, has set up a $900,000 pilot project to produce Xate in a controlled commercial environment. Presently, the project includes a nursery of $20 million seedlings and 2 ½ million plants in the jungle. The aim to have 20% of the Peten population that is dependent on Xate production benefit from it.

Representative, Just World Partners
"The Xate project was set up by the British Government to try and stop incursions into Belize by Xate cutters that have wasted the natural resources in Guatemala and then go into Belize. We feel that growing Xate plantations we can stop this incursions and that saves a lot of problems going on between Belize and Guatemala."

While that's the Guatemalan point of view, Belize also stands to benefit. Incursions will be minimized and the dollar value placed on Xate could be converted into monies that can be brought into Belize. Valentino Shal is the president of the Xate Conservation Trust; that group along with Monkey River Estates represent Belizeans interested in the commercial, British funded cultivation of Xate.

Valentino Shal,
"We see a possibility of using the Xate to help to combat the poverty and the socio-economic situation in our district. We see it as an environmentally friendly type of product."

Representative, Just World Partners,

"If Belize were to solve the Xate that is being harvested in Belize, it is probably a US $3 million that they are losing which could be packaged in Belize and exported from Belize."

"The market for Xate currently stands at US $120 million."

Billions that can be shared with Belize reducing adjacency problems of illegal incursions into national lands as well as reducing poverty in both Belize and Guatemala. And while the labor-intensive industry is catching on in Guatemala - it's left to be seen if Belize's indigenous populations will adopt to it.

On Tuesday, Cabinet discussed Xate endorsing a plan to develop it as an industry in Belize. Government's policy is to support the legitimate and sustainable harvesting by Belizeans through the issuing of concession rights in our forests. The BDF will also be deployed to patrol those areas most affected by Guatemalan Xateros incursions and neutralize Xatero access points into Belizean territory.



7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift