The Fight to Save Guyana's Forests
10/27/97
OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
Guyana state forest boundaries have been altered to incorporate more
than 4.5 million hectares of virtually untouched tropical forest.
Within the past decade nearly the entire rainforest expanse of Guyana,
one of the World's last remaining tropical wildernesses, have been
allocated for commercial timber and mining purposes. Ecological
collapse is the natural progression for countries that fail to
stabilize and regenerate their forest and other ecosystems. The
following item comes from econet's reg.carib conference.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: GUYANA: The Fight to Save the Country's Forests
Source: InterPress Service, via econet
Status: Copyright 1997, IPS, seek permission to reprint
Date: October 21, 1997
Byline: Bert Wilkinson
/** reg.carib: 199.0 **/
** Topic: IPS: GUYANA: The Fight to Save The Country's Forests **
** Written 4:09 PM Oct 21, 1997 by newsdesk in cdp:reg.carib **
Copyright 1997 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
*** 18-Oct-97 ***
Title: GUYANA: The Fight to Save The Country's Forests
By Bert Wilkinson
GEORGETOWN, Oct 13 (IPS) - For as long as many Guyanese can
remember, Mike McCormack has been a tireless human rights
activist, clashing with police and other officials in the country
on issues of principle, be it police abuse or overcrowding in the
prisons.
In recent times, he has added the environment to the list of
issues he champions, as Guyana, considered one of the few
remaining countries with its rainforest resources still intact,
is rolling out the red carpet to international timber investors.
For McCormack and his band of associates in the Guyana Human
Rights Association (GHRA) and the Green Movement, the moves by
government approximates sacrilege, since in their view state
institutions charged with overseeing activities in the rainforest
are far from capable of doing even a reasonable job.
''We don't trust the capacity of the Commission (Forestry
Commission) to monitor what's happening and to resist the
pressures these big companies can bring to bear on us,'' he told
IPS.
''When one looks at what is happening in Asia with the smog and
all that, it does not lessen our perception that we don't have
the capacity to monitor the environment and to resist the
pressures of big companies and what they can bring to bear.''
McCormack's concern stems from a recent announcement that the
Sam Hinds administration has extended the state forest boundaries
to incorporate more than 4.5 million hectares of virtually
untouched tropical forest. The idea is to bring the area under the
control of the Forestry Commission which will eventually parcel
out portions to companies which meet set criteria.
In fact, the opening of the additional concessions now means
that most of this 215,000 square kilometre South American Republic
has been parcelled out to foreign timber or mining companies, most
of them coming here in the last decade.
The new state boundaries also mean that all areas down to the
southern border with Brazil are open to possible exploration and
exploitation by prospective investors and indications are that
companies are lining up.
Assurances that firms will first be given exploratory permits
rather than harvesting licences have not done much to ease the
fears and concerns of environmentalists. They are insisting that
money and the power of incoming multinational companies will
eventually overrun the system here.
The GHRA further contends that the granting of exploratory
licences is a ruse to circumvent resistance to the opening up of
Guyana to timber arvesting.
Already three Malaysian firms, Kwitaro Investments, Berjaya
Berhad and Solid Timbers Berhad have been invited to submit plans
for working concession areas, totalling about 303,000 hectares.
The invitation allows them to do a forest inventory to determine
if there are enough commercially usable species, compile
environmental impact studies, prove their bona fides submit
documents of authenticity, including bank accounts and letters of
credit and generally indicate to authorities they have proper
track records.
Once these criteria are met, companies could then move on to
the second stage by applying for an actual harvesting licence to
engage in selected tree felling, set up plywood or furniture
factories or simply export round logs to international markets.
But the GHRA and officials remain at loggerheads over several
issues of principle. For one, some of the new areas take in lands
set aside for Protected Area Systems in collaboration with several
international agencies, including the Washington-based
Conservation International.
McCormack cites the Kanuku Mountain areas near Brazil as one
example. One of the richest on the contnent in terms of the
density of the flora and fauna, the area has been farmed out to a
Canadian mining company. The second relates to the New River
Triangle near Suriname, a region both claimed by Guyana and its
eastern neighbour.
The GHRA points to a recent study done by Conservation
International showing the area contains probably the highest
concentration of biodiversity in the country, inclusive of 250
species of birds and up to 80 percent mammal fauna.
Earlier plans had set this aside for protection, but no one is
sure what will happen now that it is on the list of exploitable
territories. (end/ips/en/bw/cb/97)
Origin: Amsterdam/GUYANA/
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