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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Timber Feeding Frenzy in Guyana, South America

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

5/21/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE

Rainforest Action Network reports that Malaysian and Canadian timber

companies are actively pursuing huge timber leases (millions of acres) in

Guyana's virgin rainforests. Despite a logging moratorium, plans continue

for a huge timber resource harvest which will effectively destroy yet

another ancient forest ecosystem. An appeal is made for letters.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Rainforest Action Network

May-June Action Alert

TIMBER FEEDING FRENZY IN GUYANA

Guyana is under siege by greedy lumber companies from Malaysia and Canada

that want to get dibs on the fledgling republic's virgin forests, and take

advantage of the country's growing pains.

Since last May, the Guyanese government has had a moratorium on new logging

concessions in the country's extensive, mostly pristine rainforests. It was

put in place as a condition of receiving a loan from the British Overseas

Development Administration to strengthen Guyana's Forestry Commission.

Since its transition to democracy in 1992, Guyana has been trying to

safeguard its resources and create a workable economy.

However, the Forestry Commission has only six trained professional

foresters to oversee more than 22 million acres of state forests.

Tragically understaffed, it is unable to do a proper job, and cannot

effectively collect royalties from current logging operations. As

legislated, the logging moratorium will stay on the books until 1998, or

until the Forestry Commission is up to speed as a regulatory agency.

Guyanese foresters agree that it will be years before this is achieved, and

in the meantime concessions are subject to minimal supervision.

In a disturbing turn of events, the Guyanese government has recently

invented the "exploratory lease," an innocent sounding arrangement with

potentially devastating results. The aim is to keep investors interested in

Guyana, promising a huge harvest of trees in the near future. It allows the

companies to devise their own forestry plan, and allows them to hew roads

through the forest and construct lumber mills now to prepare for future

cutting.

Meanwhile, according to Guyana's principal newspaper, Staebrock News,

President Cheddi Jagan's environmental advisor, Navin Chandarpal, has been

working behind the scenes to grant the Malaysian company, Solid Timber

Sendirian, a 860,000 acre concession. This concession technically lays

outside the jurisdiction of Guyana's state forests. However, to expedite

matters, the government plans to legislate an expansion of the forests,

then grant the company its exploratory lease. The company is already

planning to build a $30 million sawmill, and spend another $200 million on

processing facilities.

With leverage from Canada's High Commission to Guyana, the Ontario-based

Buchanan Group is reportedly about to secure a three-year exploratory lease

on nearly 1.5 million acres of forest in the Middle Mazaruni region. This

unlogged area is the ancestral home of the Akawaio Indians. Industry

insiders and environmental groups expect the worst. A 1992 independent

report prepared for the Canadian Paperworkers Union noted that Buchanan

"has a long history of doing all it can to avoid forestry, environmental,

and labor legislation."

The case of the Akawaio is poignant, because their indigenous land title

has not been resolved, and now their land is being sold out from beneath

them. The lure of short-term logging jobs threatens to end their customary

agricultural practices and make them dependent on Buchanan to survive. When

the timber is gone, the company will move on, leaving the ecosystem

devastated, and the Akawaio without their traditional way of life.

A 1995 World Bank study showed that Guyana's royalties, taxes and forest

fees are among the lowest in the tropics-less than a tenth of those paid in

most African and Asian countries. What's more, foreign companies enjoy

"generous tax breaks and other incentives, creating conditions of unfair

competition [for local producers.]" The report warns: "This kind of forest

mining entails a boom-and-bust pattern of development that can be highly

disruptive to employment levels, trade balances, and other factors of

macro-economic stability."

Foreign-owned companies such as Sendirian and Buchanan have no stake in

creating a sustainable economy in Guyana. There is nothing preventing them

from cutting and running, just as they have done elsewhere in the world.

_What you can do_

Sources in Guyana say of the new concessions, Buchanan's is least secure.

Send a letter to Simon Wade, Canada's High Commissioner, and tell him what

you think-1.5 million acres of rainforest are at stake! Write him care of

Canadian High Commission, P.O. Box 10880, Georgetown, Guyana. Postage from

the U.S. is 60 cents.

Dear High Commissioner,

I am horrified to learn that the government of Canada, through your office,

has been active in promoting the proposal of The Buchanan Group to log

nearly 1.5 million acres of pristine rainforest in Guyana.

I am aware that large foreign investments are tempting to the government of

Guyana, even if returns are short term and come at the risk of serious

social and environmental upheaval. The Buchanan concession would jeopardize

the biodiversity of one of the world's oldest rainforests, and destroy the

traditional livelihood of the peoples living there.

We need you to do all you can to stop this proposal.

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You are encouraged to utilize this information for personal campaign use;

including writing letters, organizing campaigns and forwarding. All

efforts are made to provide accurate, timely pieces; though ultimate

responsibility for verifying all information rests with the reader. Check

out our Gaia Forest Conservation Archives at URL=

http://forests.lic.wisc.edu/forests/gaia.html

Networked by:

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Email (best way to contact)-> gbarry@forests.org

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