Last night we told you about the lumber shortage currently threatening Belize's economy and the government mandate that put a pause on post-election timber extraction.
It's a situation that's hurting contractors, construction workers, home builders, and the many employed in the construction sector. All of whom need the vital material to keep their livelihoods afloat.
And when we spoke to the Minister of Sustainable Development Orlando Habet told us that ultimately, it's the environment that's at stake and cited the fact that Belize has been delinquent on both forest monitoring and reforestation efforts.
He did, however, suggest an alternative method that the government may be considering acquiring the much-needed hardwood.
Hon. Orlando Habet - Minister of Sustainable Development, Disaster Risk Management "Well it's something that we have to decide I believe not only as a government being cabinet and the house of representatives but also as a people, what is it that we want to do? Do we want to just issue out the licenses crazily, we do we want to destroy the Chiqibul which feeds 40% of water to the entire nation, so we have to make certain what we do. I have spoken to some saw millers and they were the ones who suggested that there is a probability that maybe we can consider the importation of hardwoods just like how we can give licenses to import pine lumber then we can also give licenses to import hardwoods from countries who still have abundance of hardwoods and that would give our forest some years to replenish and then they can come back and do some harvesting. We don't have a problem with the long term forestry licenses because these goes for 25-30 years, they do a study and they present it to the forestry department, they go through their compliance and make certain that the block in which they are harvesting, they do not return to those until 25 or 30 years, so it is sustainable. The problem we have is with the short term licenses because these people don't know if they will get the license next year, so they just tear down everything that they can even during the rainy season and that is a problem because especially for the south, we're trying to do this as quick as possible because we know that the rains start in the south before it comes up to the central area and up to the north. So that is something that we have to consider but yes certainly, we'll be looking at the possibility of either us or the private sector if they can locate somewhere Guatemala or elsewhere that they can access some hardwoods and then we can consider the licensing for importation of hardwoods also."
