environmental crime

Authorities seize illegal harvest

Environmental criminals tried to make off with the níspero they cut down in a national park.

LA PRENSA

Protected: Parque Nacional Cerro Hoya cannot be logged.1031722

The Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Anam), in a joint operation with the Policía Nacional, decommissioned a large quantity of wood harvested illegally in the protected Parque Nacional Cerro Hoya.

The park is located in the extreme southwest of the Azuero Peninsula, along the Pacific coast, in the provinces of Veraguas and Los Santos. The wood came from the níspero, or loquat, tree.

Francisco Carrizo, Anam's regional administrator in Veraguas, reported that in addition to discovering the wood, which presumably would have been carted away for sale, authorities also confiscated three chainsaws.

The culprits had apparently been tipped off about the raid and had disappeared before the arrival of the police and park rangers, who also participated in the operation.

Carrizo said that Anam agents are searching for more illegally harvested wood which might be hidden in the forest.

Mahogany, oak, guayacán, and ceiba are among the most common trees in the park. Cerro Hoya is also home to the threatened scarlet macaw, painted parakeets, white-tailed deer, ñieques, and jaguars.