BDF Goes Back to the Drawing Board for a New Plan to Ward Off Illegal Cattle Ranchers

The Belize Defense Force (BDF) will meet with the Friends for Conservation and Development (FCD) at the end of the week to discuss how to better manage Guatemalan encroachments in, near and around Chiquibul. The BDF has been monitoring illegal cattle ranches that have been constructed in the area, which in some instances are established within the vicinity of protected areas. Brigadier General Azariel Loria says that their current strategy to mitigate this situation has not been effective so they will need to devise a new plan, but they are still actively patrolling these areas.

Brig. Gen. Azariel Loria, Commander, Belize Defence Force: “This Friday we are going to have a meeting with the Friends for Conservation and Development. It’s something that we’re restrategizing because the current strategy is not working as to how we would want it to so we’ll continue to discuss that strategy but it is something the means we’re thinking about not necessarily the Mennonites to go and retrieve the cattle that is roaming in that area but we’ll find other ways to deal with that problem but for the time being we’re cutting down their fences whenever they encroach into Belize we automatically send a verification letter to the Ministry of National Defence and Foreign Affairs so that the Organization of American States personnel can come, verify, once they verify we go and cut down whatever fences we find in the area.”