7 News Belize

Can’t Stop The Hustle: Rosewood
posted (May 19, 2014)
Rosewood, it seems, you can burn it, ban it, list it under CITES (SITE-EASE)...do what you like, but the movement of the prized hardwood just doesn't stop.

Today 7News was alerted to two 40 foot containers stored on the compound of Belize Engineering which is adjacent to the customs building in Belize City. They are full of Rosewood - reportedly bound for China. The agent we are told is the same Chinese business-man who has been moving the lion's share of Rosewood exports from Belize over the past few years.

In this case, the Forestry Department confirms that it did authorize the movement of the Rosewood last week Friday form Punta Gorda Town. Now, if you're scratching your head, saying, "Hasn't rosewood extraction end exportation been put to an end?" We were too...but that only covers newly cut Rosewood. These two containers, according to the Forestry Department is pre-amnesty. Chief Forrest Officer Wilbur Sabido told us via text that it belongs to a private estate landowner who had that material from between 2012 and 2013. The volume of pre-amnesty rosewood that just seems to be lying around seems virtually inexhaustible.

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