Ten years ago, most of us didn't even know what the word "Xate" referred to. But since then Xate has gone mainstream - and by now - after dozens of news stories - most of us know it is an ornamental leaf that grows plentifully in Belizean forests - and is highly sought after by Guatemalan poachers.
Now, the Friends For Conservation and Development, which co-manages the Chiquibul National Park has quantified exactly how many leaves have been taken - and how many remain in the Chiquibul.
After over a year of field work and in house analysis - they presented their report today in Belmopan at the Convention Hotel. 7news was there.
Jules Vasquez reporting
In an exhaustive - and no doubt exhausting survey of the Xate plants in the Chiquibul forest, for eight months - six persons surveyed 60 plots of the forest - each plot about half a hectare:
Boris Arrevalo, Biologist & Research Coordinator, FCD
"Within those plots we counted all the Xate plants. We counted them, identify them, how many leaves they had, how many have been extracted, how many commercial leaves and how many leaves had evidence that they had been eaten by animals."
And, the survey says....
Boris Arrevalo, Biologist & Research Coordinator, FCD
"Actually the survey revealed that illegal xateros have been wondering to scribble the forest quite a lot and they have been extracting a lot of leaves from the Chiquibul forest mainly one specie which is the fishtail. The data revealed that at this point xateros have managed to walk away with over 14 million leaves of fishtail from the Chiquibul alone."
"In terms of money, it will be a little over six hundred thousand US dollars."
But while much has been illegally extracted, there's still a fair quantity left behind:
Boris Arrevalo
"We calculated the productive capacity of Xate in the Chiquibul forest and the results indicate that within the Chiquibul forest we could harvest over 8 million leaves at this present moment."
That's a value of six hundred thousand US dollars:
Boris Arrevalo
"At present we have a potential Xate industry in Belize where we still have the Xate stocks in the Chiquibul forest. What we need to do is to try to put forward an industry that is well manage and well monitored."
But who would extract it? It's tough going in a rugged area for an ornamental that does not give a great per leaf yield.
An operation was opened in Belize years ago - but it ran into trouble because Guatemalans were doing all the extraction:
Jules Vasquez
"It is very hard to get Belizeans to go into that deep forest. It's such a rugged area to get them to go and do Xate extraction which all things considered is not a high yield crop."
Boris Arrevalo
"Actually what you are saying is 100% correct. For a Belizean company to start marketing Xate it is something that they have to think once, twice or maybe ten times over because the minimum wage here in Belize is very high compare to what Guatemalans would be earning. What we need to do is to get community involved. Make a community for buffering the Chiquibul forest; let's say San Antonio or Seven Miles or Cristo Rey - get a community concession where these people feel that there is an ownership in the Chiquibul for them and not only focus on the extraction of Xate but they could extract other non-timber products such as bay leaves, copal, spice seeds and chicle that could add more value to extracting activities within the Chiquibul forest."
And if Belizeans don't get it, someone will as Xatero activity long in decline has now picked up:
Boris Arrevalo
"For over the last 2 years we have seen a drastic decline in xatero activity in the Chiquibul forest but lately over the last month or so we have seen an increase of xatero activity again."
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