{"id":83138,"date":"2026-02-22T10:12:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/?p=83138"},"modified":"2026-02-22T12:57:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:57:34","slug":"10k-fine-for-no-permit-forests-need-time-to-recover-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/10k-fine-for-no-permit-forests-need-time-to-recover-too\/","title":{"rendered":"$10K Fine for No Permit: Forests Need Time to Recover Too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you were planning to cut firewood or harvest trees from national land, you may want to catch up with this reminder. The Belize Forest Department has had an active five-year moratorium since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/belize-slaps-five-year-ban-on-tree-cutting-permits-to-save-forests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 2025<\/a> on logging permits to give the country\u2019s forests a chance to recover.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The public is advised that you must come into the Forest Department to apply for a permit, whether it\u2019s for bush sticks, firewood, or any tree you want to cut,\u201d said Forest Officer Victoria Chi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;You must get a permit from the forest department. If you are caught without a permit or conducting illegal logging, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/7500-fine-issued-as-forest-dept-cracks-down-on-illegal-logging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">you will be charged.<\/a> The penalty is up to $10,000,&#8221; Chi added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The moratorium applies to government-owned land, including areas under valid leases, until formal titles are issued. Permits \u201cdepend on the species of tree that you want to cut,\u201d Chi said. Mahogany and cedar carry higher fees, while secondary hardwoods cost $16 per tree, for example. Private landowners must still apply for permits, which are available at half price.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chi said the measure is meant to protect Belize\u2019s forests for everyone. She added that compliance prevents further depletion of the country\u2019s trees.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you were planning to cut firewood or harvest trees from national land, you may want to catch up with this reminder. The Belize Forest Department has had an active five-year moratorium since November 2025 on logging permits to give the country\u2019s forests a chance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":83139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[484,444,475],"tags":[10936,10937],"class_list":["post-83138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-latest-news","category-news","tag-10k-fine-for-no-permit-forests-need-time-to-recover-too","tag-2026-02-22"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83141,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83138\/revisions\/83141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greaterbelize.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}