Judge sentences illegal logger to tend trees in forest
Kingston, Jamaica, June 1, 2010:
Following up on her order for an illegal logger to replant trees, Resident Magistrate Georgianna Fraser has now sentenced him to take care of them.
Wayne Nelson, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service, which he is to spend taking care of the trees he replanted.
Nelson, who is from Mount Horeb in rural St.Andrew, replanted 30 trees on May 21 in the nearby community of Joppa, Mount Airy also in St. Andrew under the supervision of the Forestry Department. The Agency manages the forestlands.
On his first appearance before the Half Way Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court on May 10, Nelson was ordered by RM Fraser to replant a minimum two trees which he had indicated that he had cut down.
The species used in the replanting exercise are Pine, Spanish Elm and Blue Mahoe. A schedule is to be developed, by the Forestry Department and the accused, for the maintenance of the trees.
Allegations are that on April 15, 2010, the Forestry Department received information that pine trees were being illegally logged at the Mount Horeb forest reserves. Representatives from the Forestry Department and the Stony Hill Police, tried to find the location, however heavy rain prevented them from doing so.
The following day, on April 16, 2010, representatives from the Forestry Department while patrolling the reserves, noticed some pieces of lumber, believed to be Caribbean pine, stacked beside a house in the vicinity where the initial logging was reported to have occurred. The Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) Agro and Environmental Enforcement Unit and Forestry officers went to the location where they discovered that two trees had been recently cut. It was also observed that 69 pieces of pine were stacked beside two houses nearby.
Further investigations found that 42 pieces had been cut down one to three days earlier and the remaining pieces were cut down about six months before.
Additional investigations by the police found that Nelson was the one responsible for cutting down the trees, which he intended to use to build a house. He was subsequently arrested and charged under Section 31of the Forest Act, 1996. Nelson could have been fined up to $200,000 and/or sentenced to two years imprisonment at hard labour for the offence.
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For further information:
Contact:
Public Relations and Corporate Communications Branch
Forestry Department
173 Constant Spring Road
Kingston 8, Jamaica
Call: 924-2667/8; 578-7155
Facsimile: 924-2626
Email: fblack@forestry.gov.jm
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