Last week, we showed you Crooked Tree Residents lashing out at the Audubon Society which manages the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary.
But the Audubon says it's a bigger problem a legislative one - having to do with the Departments of Forestry and Fisheries.
Today the minister with responsibility for those ministries told us a legislative review is underway:
Hon. Lisel Alamilla - Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, and Sustainable Development
"What you need to visit is the legislations which governs these protected areas, and we are in the midst of an exercise - in fact, at the very tail end of the exercise to look at the protected areas system of Belize to determine whether we're going to re-categorize those protected areas which will allow harvesting and other activities to happen within protected areas. Until that exercise happens, Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary will remain in that category because we will not do it in a piece-meal manner. We're looking at the entire protected areas system of Belize."
According to a release sent out by the Audubon, the entire flare up in Crooked Tree stems from an event onFriday November 9th when the Police Dept, Forest Dept and staff of Belize Audubon Society carried out a joint patrol in the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary.
