On the chopping block.

In a country where almost everyone earns their living from the environment - either farming the land, harvesting the sea, or guiding hordes of tourists to pristine natural areas the government of Belize has tarnished its environmental reputation by refusing to consult with indigenous people about the ongoing logging of their land.

Last exploited for mahogany in the 18th century, the regenerated moist forests of the Toledo District (in a region known as the Columbia River Forest Reserve) are once again threatened. These forests could be reduced to a selectively cut patchwork of green laced with muddy logging access roads if the Malaysian logging company, Atlantic Industries Limited, has its way. At risk is the livelihood of the Maya who have lived in the region for centuries, as well as habitat for numerous species of rare birds and plants, including the endangered Scarlet Macaw, black howler monkey and Baird's tapir. Ironically, forest products account for only three percent of Belize's Gross Domestic Product, considerably less than the nation's number one foreign currency earner: tourism.

Granted a 159,018-acre logging concession in 1995 (for which it paid the princely sum of 60 cents an acre), Atlantic's timber extraction has proceeded on schedule. But the company is now fighting a legal battle with the Kekchi and Mopan Maya, who call these jungles their traditional home, but were cut out of the decision-making process. The Toledo Mayan Cultural Council, representing more than 30 indigenous communities, and the U.S.-based Indian Law Resource Center, have joined forces to fight for native rights.

For the indigenous Maya and Garifuna peoples, the land tenure and reservation system set up in 1924, and replaced by the National Lands Act of 1992, provides little security. "These laws give Indian reservations an insecure legal status," claims Deborah Schaaf, a staff attorney with the Indian Law Resource Center. "The reservations may exist only so long as the government says that their existence is in the public interest."

Diego Bol, a founding member of the Toledo Maya Cultural Council, says logging has had a devastating effect on his people. "We've seen a decline in the number of animals on which we depend for food. The destruction of the sources for our medicine and increasingly muddied waters resulting from river crossings by the bulldozers have ruined our fishing," he says.

Schaaf says that over 450,000 acres have been opened to logging since 1993, all within the Maya ancestral homeland. But Neil Bird, technical advisor to the Belizean Ministry of Natural Resources, says the logging is "highly selective"; he claims that "only 23 percent of the large trees are being released for cutting." CONTACT: Toledo Maya Cultural Council, PO Box 104, Punta Gorda, Toledo, Belize, (fax)011-501-7-22226; Indian Law Resource Center, 602 North Ewing Street, Helena MT 59601/[phone].