There are more Guatemalan Gold Panners in the Chiquibul to tell you about tonight. On Friday, the Southern Joint Forces Unit comprising BDF, Police and Friends for Conservation and Development rangers launched an operation in extreme southern are of the Chiquibul National Park. Around midday, they found five Guatemalan men gold panning more than five miles within Belizean territory. Three of them had vials with a total of about 20 grammes of gold. The market price is about $57.00 dollars per gramme. They were taken on the very long trek back to the San Ignacio Police Station where they were charged for illegal entry, defacing a protected area, extracting and possessing a mineral without a permit.
A release from the Friends for Conservation and Development says that the group had been operating in the area for a few days. Their arrest was preceded by another arrest earlier in the week when another Guatemalan was found with a vial of gold.
FCD reports that the four vials confiscated in the past week had a over 24 grams documented. They lament that gold extraction is now happening at the higher elevations of the Chiquibul headwaters. The release adds, quote,
"The devastation is high and the impacts are more damaging since these are steep slopes and are the origins of the Chiquibul watershed," end quote.
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