Last night PLUS TV out of Belmopan broke the news that thousands of board feet of confiscated Rosewood were on the move from the Forestry Department Compound in the Capital. Valencia's trucking out of Orange Walk had been hired to haul the logs – where to, no one knows for sure. But late this evening, Government sent out a release saying that it has a plan for all that Rosewood – and it's a controversial one.
Forty minutes ago, the Government release was issued; it says, quote:
"The Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development has decided to allow the sale/export of already harvested rosewood over the period 8th – 26th April, 2013 to avoid the complete loss of value."
The release does not say who will benefit from the proceeds from the sale, if it will derive to government, or to the red-light running exporters, or whether, as some sources suggest, it will be shared.
According to our information, Government at one point entertained the plan to act as seller and export the Rosewood, presumably to China where it fetches top dollar. Under that plan, Government would then receive the proceeds of those sales - and this is the controversial part – then share that money in an even split with the companies it was confiscated from – companies such as Kambokin that had two twenty foot containers confiscated from a compound near the customs department in January of this year. Again, that is just a report, and the release gives no indication of what the revenue arrangement will be – in fact, it lends itself to the interpretation that the owners – form whom it was confiscated – will be doing the exporting.
But whatever the case, the highly unusual development is sure to raise many eyebrows and excite some level of public outrage because basically it would giving a green light to those Rosewood dealers who've been running red's since the Rosewood moratorium was put into effect 13 months ago.
This 19 day amnesty on Rosewood exports will allow all those exporters who have illegally extracted Rosewood during the moratorium to bring out their fitches from where they've been stashing them and rush to have them exported during the amnesty period. Apparently, as the PLUS TV footage shows they will also get back all that Rosewood which was confiscated. There is no word at this time on whether the amount confiscated at the Benque Viejo border will be included in this lot – since that was forfeited to the Forestry Department three weeks ago.
We await further details on this very unusual decision by government – a decision which seems to bear the heavy influence of politically well-connected Rosewood dealers.
It should be noted that after the amnesty they'll have a harder time exporting Rosewood since it has now come under CITES protection – a level of international scrutiny that even Cabinet connects cannot so easily overcome.
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