Yesterday we reported on the illegal logging in the Colombia Forest Reserve, even after the BDF destroyed the wooden bridges they had found. It's a chronic issue, and one that the PM says must be dealt with delicately. He explained today that while it's unfortunate the Guatemalans must try to find land in Belize instead of their own country, the BDF must continue to ward them off.
In terms of whether part of the forest will be de-reserved, the PM said that hasn't come to his desk as yet.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I have not been briefed on that but we constantly, in the national security council meetings, we get briefs of incursion of Guatemalans in Belize and in many instances they are illegally cutting our trees. It is something that we have to handle delicately simply because of the agreement that we have through the OAS that we have to go through a lengthy process of having the OAS verifying whether they are within our land. What we have done at the last meeting in our frustration we have said that whenever the OAS has already identified a point to say that is Belize and anything that happens east of that is Belize you don't have to wait for the OAS to come in and verify that is why this time around we told the BDF go and break down those bridges that were built over some of the creeks and to be able to confiscate anything that we see beyond those points that have already been identified by the OAS as being within the country. We just need to continue at it, we can't stop. It's unfortunate that on the Guatemalan side the oligarchy has taken up pretty much all of the land and the poor people, the farmers, the people living in the poorer areas don't have land, they don't have access to land and on the other side, on the Belize side, they see this lush forest and they want to come in. We are going to do everything to protect our land. As to the de-reservation, it has not come to me as yet, certainly it's something that the Ministry of Sustainable Development would have to take a look and decide because from time to time there are areas that no longer need to be kept as a reserve and I remember in my time we'd de-reserve an area and reserve another area so we kinda keep the same amount of land, I think we did that with Payne's Creek National Park back then so it has not come to me yet but I'm certain that Minister Habet will inform me at the appropriate time if that's what they're planning to do."
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