We all know about Rosewood in Belize and all the contortions and controversy it has put the government through. But, it's a problem all over the world, and all over this region wherever the precious hardwood grows. Just so in Guatemala where on Friday we found out from the CEO in their Ministry of environment that they had seized 25 containers of illegal rosewood at the Santo Tomas Port. Here's what he told us:..
César Vinicio Montero Suárez - Guatemalan CEO in the Ministry of the Environment
"The department of Peten, especially southeastern Peten, in the case of Poptún has areas where there are ecosystems conducive to the development of rosewood. From that account, five years ago, the price of rosewood explodes internationally; we are talking about 12 to 13 dollars per foot, and that makes extreme pillaging of the specie in areas of southern Petén. A couple of years ago we started activating the mechanisms and we have seen the results. The illegal extraction of rosewood is part of a purely large-scale organized crime that extracts the wood, even with the involvement of some authorities. However, after the government of Guatemala seized more than 25 containers with time at the port of Santo Tomas de Castilla, headed to international markets, it triggered a series of illegal activities carried out by organized crime and we began to dismantle these groups. To date, the pillaging of rosewood is quite controlled, there are mills that have closed down, there are people in the courts, a network even involving people of other nationalities has been dismantled and I think we are on the way to preserving this unique species. "
With the passage of the CITES convention, each country that has rosewood needs to demonstrate they can harvest sustainably, each country sets its quota based on research info that CITES committee gives oversight to.
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