Chiquibul Remains Under Threat of Poaching

Julius Espat

Poaching is a similar issue that is being faced in the Chiquibul Forest where gold panners and illegal farmers enter into the expanse of wilderness.  According to Julius Espat whose Cayo South constituency includes the Chiquibul Forest, enough is not being done to preserve and safeguard the national treasure.

Julius Espat, Area Representative, Cayo South

“The Chiquibul is a national treasure and we are losing it, we are losing it because we are not protecting it enough.  We are not spending enough resources to be able to protect it.  At the meeting today there were some interesting ideas on how to protect the Chiquibul.  They said it was a hundred and odd miles of border with Guatemala that the Chiquibul has and maybe we have a lot of people in this country that need land, maybe we should occupy the borderline so that the residents of this country defend it.  And you know how people do when land is theirs and they own it, they will defend it and it will show the other side that we are serious and I am not saying occupying the reserve.  We are saying the reserve is being de-reserved illegally anyway and if you look at the statistics, you can speak to the rangers, every single day we are losing the pristine forest of the Chiquibul because we have absolutely no interest from government to be able to do better.”