ABSTRACT
High in a remote part of the Maya Mountains in Belize away from the usual tourist destinations, I am told that we need to be on alert for illegal loggers and “xateros”. My Belizean colleague tells me that they are typically well armed and he has brought along a couple of members of the Belizean Defence Force just in case. Xateros are collectors of the smooth, green fronds of the xaté palm (two species in the highly endangered genus Chamaedorea) that grows here in abundance. The young fronds of this small, understorey palm have become the source of a floriculture trade that rocketed from a small specialist supplier to Europe and North America in the 1950s to one that is now worth more than US$3 million per year and provides many jobs and a source of income to residents of the region (Bridgewater et al. 2006, 2007). The delicate fronds commonly accompany other tropical flowers in grand floral displays, but are particularly in demand during the Easter period. The palm produces fronds seasonally and at a steady, but rather low, rate, although it can vary with conditions from year to year. Once extraction adheres to the growth rate, however, harvests can be sustained indefinitely. The volume of fronds produced can be expanded by encouraging a larger population of the xaté palms to take hold in the understorey or through enrichment planting. But over-harvesting through the activity of illegal xateros threatens the long-term survival of this extractive industry. The objective of these “palmpoachers” is to take as many saleable fronds as they can find, often leading to the complete defoliation of well-established adult plants. Due to the slow growth conditions of the palm’s favoured understorey environment, these are not quickly replaced and most of those defoliated in this way soon perish. The impact of these losses on the population dynamics of the species can be devastating and the xaté palm is now rare over large tracts of forest that only a few decades ago were heavily carpeted with the vibrant green “fish-tail” leaves of young palms. The ultimate outcome is the loss of an important local industry that provides a critical source of income to some of the poorest rural households and an increase in violence associated with illegal elements in the trade. Illegal logging, hunting and the collection of live specimens for the pet trade have 228followed, depleting some of Belize’s largest national parks of the very elements that help to sustain its relatively healthy tourism economy and beneath all of this is the hidden spectre of a vibrant and violent transshipment of illicit drugs from South America via Belize to Mexico and the United States.
