Minister with responsibility for the Forestry Department, Lisel Alamilla has already made her first bold move: she's declared a moratorium on the Rosewood trade in Belize.
A release from the government this afternoon says that quote, "a moratorium on the harvesting and exportation of rosewood is being declared with immediate effect until further notice."
The release notes that "increased rosewood logging has led to a near depletion of the specie in national lands (and that) private lands and protected areas are now being targeted to meet this insatiable demand."
Well, no more and the Ministry will now carry out quote, "an orderly assessment of the situation on the ground to institute a rigorous regulatory framework throughout the country."
We note that this is a sharp reversal from the position put out by the Government in January when the Forestry Department was under Gaspar Vega. The decision taken then was to conduct a survey and to maintain current permits which will last until June.
At the time, Alamilla, then the Executive Director of the Ya'Axche Conservation Trust criticized that decision saying, quote, "they are giving the green light to proceed without regard to forest laws, they are in fact making the situation worse."
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