Hello Precious Timber Family,
By now I’m sure you have seen the news over the past few weeks from Nicaragua. I want to thank those of you who have called or emailed our offices with your various concerns, questions, and thoughtful prayers for our staff.
We are monitoring the situation on a day by day basis, and we are receiving up to the minute information pretty much as it happens. The bottom line is clear, a change is being called for at the top. I’ll provide my view on that in a moment, but with regard to our shared investments in the country, this really isn’t likely to impact us that much.
Whether you own tropical timberland, coconuts, or coffee, the biological growth aspect of our crops will not alter. As we have said for years, trees really don’t care about wars, political fights, up or down economics, etc., they will continue to do what they do. Now, obviously there are other ways Nicaragua’s current situation could affect things, but for the most part things would have to deteriorate much more for that to become a reality.
We have many friends (and employees) who we are able to talk with to get the feel of the population and their thoughts and expectations. The first thing we can share is that the Nicaragua of May isn’t the same Nicaragua as April. And the likelihood of it going back to April is slim to none! You have likely read the same news stories I have and visited some of the Nica blogs to discover more (just Google Nicaragua News Blogs), and the information there is as fluid as the situation and will be for the foreseeable future.
The U.S. Embassy has the travel level heightened to level 3, which according to all the Americans I know that live there say that’s an overstatement. I’m sure it’s better to be safe than sorry, but the reality is that the demonstrations and protests were and will be mostly confined to larger cities. Travel to the coastal areas or wildlife/agricultural locations remains much the same – quiet, peaceful, and relaxing.
I’ll be heading that way in a couple weeks to welcome guests and clients, and I’ll have more I’m sure to say thereafter. I’m not expecting things to resolve themselves quickly given the severity of the challenges ahead, but overall I am very proud of the Nicaraguan people for standing up as they did, and I wish them well as they chart a better course for themselves.
Our prayers are with them for the outcome they so deserve.