Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Trials for Illegal Logging

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

GUATEMALA CITY, Apr 14 2003 (IPS) - The environmental prosecutor of Guatemala is pursuing more than 20 lawsuits against companies and individuals for the illegal logging and trade of the country’s forest resources, the aim being to halt deforestation, legal assistant José Luis Rivera told Tierramérica. “In addition to bringing the perpetrators to justice, what is most important is to repair the harm by ensuring reforestation in proportion to the quantity and quality of the trees cut,” Rivera said.

In March, the owners of two lumber mills in northern Guatemala were found guilty of trafficking lumber. A thousand cubic feet of wood were seized from one – “the equivalent of 80 trucks full,” noted the legal expert.