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Last month we told you about the rosewood confiscated in Benque Viejo Town.  Today, the Forestry Department confirmed that the 31,000 board feet in flitch and lumber form was the property of Miguel Angel Estala. He appeared in the San Ignacio Magistrate Court yesterday charged with "unlawful possession of forest produce". Estala pleaded guilty and was assessed with the maximum fine of the quite paltry one-thousand dollars. The rosewood was forfeited to the Government of Belize.

The Ministry of Forestry acknowledges that the fine is minor and is working on revising penalties and fines for forest crimes.

In related news, the Forest Department also conducted an operation in the Gomez Estate, a large, privately owned forest in the Toledo District, where they found 1000 board feet of rosewood along with 2500 board feet of Santa Maria lumber.  

In a release the department says all the confiscated material is under 24-hour surveillance at the Forest Department.

The PUP Shadow Minister for Sports, Paul Thompson has called on the government to use the confiscated Rosewood to build a wooden basketball and volleyball court.