Belize enacts moratorium on rosewood.
http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0319-llewellyn_moratorium_rosewood.html?utm_campaign=General+news&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_source=SNS.analytics 



In Belize, the government issued a ban on the felling of rosewood trees. This is the first step in their process to monitor and account for the number of trees still in the ground and thus regulate the trading of the trees. Belize is moving forward in the environmental justice world, as evidenced by the election of a conservationist as the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, Sustainable Development and Indigenous Peoples. 


An interesting aspect to this moratorium issue is that the Supreme Court of Belize has ruled that the location of the rosewood trees in question are located in Maya villages. The government refuses to enforce this ruling, and is also appealing it. This means that the government will not issue legal titles to the Maya villages which hinders the villagers from establishing their community boundaries. What is common amongst the villages when they are granted land titles is that they establish a long term conservation plan for the rosewood trees instead of over-using the trees for their own gains. However, this website seems to believe that it may be too late for long term conservation of the rosewood.


While reading this article, I thought of the reading we had before break entitled "The Indian Mobilization in Lowland Ecuador". These people wanted land titles, and organized themselves in a peaceful and eloquent manner in order to achieve this goal. Could the Maya villagers organize in the same way? Once they have the land titles, their plan is to start a conservation plan for the rosewood trees. Some sort of international organization could step in to help them compose a draft argument as to why they deserve the titles, and notify the government of their conservation attempts. If the villagers gain some political representation, then this could be beneficial in obtaining the titles. I question where the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, etc. comes into play here. Could this newly elected official help the villagers out in any way? Or are they siding with the government in the attempts to appeal that the location of the trees resides with the villages? This minister has a long and ambiguous title that could help or hinder the villagers of Belize.