The forestry industry's control of land in…

The forestry industry's control of land in British Honduras and its influence in colonial decision-making retards the development of agriculture and the diversification of the economy.

In many parts of the Caribbean, large numbers of former slaves, some of whom had engaged in the cultivation and marketing of food crops, have become landowners.

British Honduras has vast areas of sparsely populated, unused land.

Nevertheless, landownership is controlled by a small European monopoly, thwarting the evolution of a Creole landowning class from the former slaves.

Rather than the former slaves, it is the Garifuna, Maya, and Mestizos who pioneer agriculture in nineteenth-century British Honduras.

These groups either rent and or live as squatters.

However, the domination of the land by forestry interests continues to stifle agriculture and keeps much of the population dependent on imported foods.