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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
More
Logging in Guyana
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
2/2/97
OVERVIEW,
SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
Guyana's
government has announced that logging is to increase by 400%
in the
next 3-5 years as one of the last remaining largely intact
forest
bioregions is to be dismantled and shipped away. The World
Rainforest
Movement provides an excellent update on the scourge of
industrial
predatory logging. Details are provided
on bad corporate
timber
industry actors moving into Guyana.
g.b.
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Title: More Logging in Guyana
Source: World Rainforest Movement
Status: Distribute freely with accreditation to
source
Date: November 28, 1997
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Written 6:43 PM Dec
2, 1997 by gn:wrm in igc:rainfor.genera */
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FOREST
PEOPLES PROGRAMME
Guyana
Information Update
28
November 1997
More
Logging in Guyana
Logging
in Guyana's forests is about to dramatically increase. The
Minister
of Forestry stated on November 9, 1997, that Guyana's present
production
of 240,000 cubic metres per annum is expected to increase
to 1
million cubic metres within the next 3-5 years. State Forests
were
also recently expanded by 11.3 million acres and new legislation
was
passed this Summer to permit the granting of Exploratory logging
concessions.
On November 4, it was announced that applications had
been
sent out to 5 companies concerning Exploratory leases. The
Minister's
November 9 announcement also stated that four major timber
companies
have agreed to invest in Guyana in the near future. Three
are
Indonesian companies, one of which is the giant PT Barito Pacific
Timber. Barito also recently acquired a large
concession in
neighbouring
Suriname near the border with Guyana.
In
1993, Guyana negotiated a five year moratorium on new logging
concessions
with international donor agencies. The
rationale being
that
additional logging would be unsustainable and uncontrollable
given
the state of official institutions responsible for forestry,
especially
the Guyana Forestry Commission. Since
that time, Guyana
has
enacted environmental legislation, installed an Environmental
Assessment
Board and an Environmental Appeals Tribunal and has
taken
other measures to strengthen its capacity to monitor logging
operations. The Government is also looking into
establishing a
National
Biodiversity Committee. Nevertheless, even with these
measures,
monitoring capacity is still extremely weak and virtually
impossible
in the newly declared State Forests of the South.
Furthermore,
most of the companies involved have poor environmental
records
and Indigenous land rights issues have yet to be fully
addressed.
Guyana
recently sent applications for Exploratory Leases to Malaysian
companies,
Berjaya Berhad, Solid Timbers Berhad and Kwitaro
Investments
(owned by the Mafira Group) as well as to Canadian,
Buchanan
Forest Products Ltd., and Guyanese-Malaysian company, Case
Timbers
(80% owned by Villupillai Kanagalingan).
An Exploratory Lease
permits
each company to make an inventory of commercial timber,
develop
necessary infrastructure and write a management plan to be
submitted
to the Government. The Government had
previously signed a
Memoranda
of Understanding with Berjaya, Kwitaro and Solid Timber, but
had to
enact legislation legalising the Exploratory Leases before
proceeding
further. This legislation was passed in
July of this year
over
the objections of opposition parties who urged that the law be
withdrawn. They accused the Government of moving with
undue haste, of
not
consulting with Indigenous peoples and said that the law "reeked
of
collusion, conflict of interest and corruption."
The law
requires that applications for Exploratory Leases be evaluated
by the
Guyana Forestry Commission. In doing
so, tax records,
financial
status and details of other operations must be submitted.
If the
GFC approves the application, the Exploratory Lease may then be
issued. However, the press in Guyana is citing
official sources
stating
that the Government has already investigated the companies
involved
and sees no problem with approving the applications. They go
on to
say that it is expected that the Leases will be operational by
January
1998. This casual disregard for the law
is taking place even
before
the applications have been approved: what will happen when full
exploitation
licenses are granted?
Berjaya,
Solid Timbers and Kwitaro each will get concessions of 80,000
acres
in the newly extended State Forests of the South. Buchanan will
get
600,000 acres on the Middle Mazaruni River.
This is part of the
territory
of the Akawaio Indigenous people, many of whom don't have
titles
to their land in this area. Case
Timbers will get a concession
of
500,000 acres contiguous with its existing concession of 154,000
acres
and another under the name of UNAMCO, which is 237,000 acres.
Case
and its Malaysian partner own UNAMCO.
On July 21, 1997, Case
signed
a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government for the
construction
of a US$40 million plywood plant. The plant, which is
estimated
to produce 7000 cubic metres of plywood per month is
expected
to be operational by the end of 1998.
In
other news, on November 2, 1997, Demerara Timbers Ltd. (DTL) and
the
Guyana Government broke ground on a new US$20 million saw mill and
plywood
plant. DTL has also invested US$6
million in new logging
equipment. DTL is working a concession of approximately
one half
million
hectares between the Essequibo and Upper Demerara rivers. DTL
is
owned by the Prime Group of Singapore, which is a conglomerate of
companies
from South east Asia, including Turama Forest Industries of
Papua
New Guinea, Indonesian, BP Batu Ampar Wood Industries and SK
Timber
Corp. of Malaysia. Turama had its
logging permit suspended in
PNG for
breach of contract and violation of environmental regulations.
It was
also accused of transfer pricing to escape paying taxes and
other
duties in PNG. The Prime Group also
shares two directors with
the
notorious Malaysian company, Ribunan Hijau, responsible for
massive
destruction of forests in Sarawak and PNG.
According
to Guyanese newspaper, the Stabroek News, Ribunan Hijau is
rumored
to be in the process of acquiring the Prime Group. The paper
reports
that after a management shake up 3 months ago, log felling by
DTL
doubled from 5,000 cubic metres to 10,000 cubic metres a month.
Seventy
percent of the logs are exported as round wood. The
management
shake up was directed by Ribunan Hijau fueling speculation
that it
has already acquired the Prime Group or at least is
controlling
a substantial part of its operations. Ribunan Hijau
recently
extended its operations to the Brazilian Amazon near Manaus.
It also
has connections with Berjaya Berhad of Malaysia, one of the
companies
that received an application for an Exploratory Lease.
Berjaya
is already working in Guyana through Case and UNAMCO. It also
has a
number of recently granted concessions in Suriname. Ribunan
Hijau
is also suspected of having ties to
other companies operating
in
Guyana. Just how much of Guyana's
forests are controlled by
Ribunan
may never be known. Nonetheless,
Ribunan's record elsewhere,
where it
demonstrates a total disregard for environmental laws most
likely
will be repeated in Guyana. Both Berjaya and Ribunan Hijau have
also
been involved in serious conflicts with Indigenous peoples in the
areas
of their operations.
Indigenous
peoples, whose ancestral lands cover large areas of
Guyana's
forests have stated their opposition to logging and mining on
or near
their lands on numerous occasions. For
instance, David James,
the
President of the Amerindian Peoples Association of Guyana stated
that "to allow uncontrolled logging and
mining in our lands will
ultimately
benefit neither Guyana, nor the World, and worst of all it
threatens
the survival of the Amerindian peoples and the environment."
Indigenous
peoples especially point to the fact that outstanding land
issues
have yet to be satisfactorily resolved and that the Government
routinely
ignores them when granting logging and mining concessions.
International
human rights standards provide that Indigenous peoples
have
rights to lands occupied and used by them as well as to
participate
in decisions concerning the use of those lands. Guyana
falls
short on both counts. Approximately half of the Indigenous
communities
in Guyana have title to land, although the vast majority
of
these state that their titled areas are inadequate, both in
comparison
to their ancestral lands and for their basic subsistence
needs.
The
other half have no title to any land and live a precarious
existence
especially when confronted with logging and mining
operations. Some communities complain that they are
exploited as
cheap
labour by logging and mining companies while others have entered
into
agreements to sell timber on their lands, in most cases severely
damaging
their forest resources. As logging increases the problems
experienced
by Indigenous peoples in Guyana
will
also increase.
The
recognition of Indigenous land rights was a condition of Guyana's
independence
from the United Kingdom in 1966. In
order to implement
this
decision, an Amerindian Lands Commission was established. Its
report,
issued in 1969, recommended that titled be granted to 24,000
square
miles of a total 43,000 square miles identified as theirs by
Indigenous
peoples. In 1976, the Government
granted title to 4,500
square
miles little more than one tenth of that identified by
Indigenous
peoples and less than 20% of that recommended by the Lands
Commission. Additional titles were issued in 1991 to a
few
communities,
but the total area titled is still a fraction of that
recommended
by the Lands Commission, let alone that identified by
Indigenous
peoples themselves. Large areas of
these lands are now
being
used for logging and mining despite the fact the Indigenous
peoples
continue to assert their rights to them.
The concession
granted
to Malaysian company, Barama, for instance, is larger than all
titled
Indigenous land in Guyana combined. The
Government has only
recently
began to demarcate Indigenous lands in Guyana.
However, the
money
allocated is insufficient for more than a few communities.
Moreover,
Indigenous communities all over the country have rejected
Government
offers of demarcation until all other lands issues are
resolved.
In
conclusion, Prime Minister and likely next President, Janet Jagan
has
vowed to fight poverty by fostering expansion of the timber and
mining
industries. One has to wonder how
exactly Guyana will be able
to
expand logging and mining operations when the vast majority of the
country
is already under concession. The only
major area left is the
ancestral
land of the Wai Wai Indigenous people of
the deep South.
The Wai
Wai leader recently demanded that full title to Wai Wai land
be
granted and rejected logging operations on those lands. Also,
logging
and mining may provide jobs for some, but experience has shown
that
with few exceptions these operations have contributed to
increased
poverty for Indigenous peoples. Finally, given the emphasis
that
the Government is putting on extractive industries like logging
and
mining, serious questions have to be raised about the inclination
of the
Government to enforce environmental and human rights
protections.
For
further information please contact,
Forest
Peoples Programme
1c,
Fosseway Business Centre, Stratford Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, GL56
9NQ, UK
Tel.
44. 1608. 652. 893, Fax. 44. 1608. 652. 878, Email :
wrm@gn.apc.org
Forest
Peoples Programme / World Rainforest Movement (UK Office)
1c
Fosseway Business Center, Stratford Road, Moreton in Marsh, GL56
9NQ, UK
Tel: 44
(0)i608 652893 Fax: 44 (0) 1608
652878 Email:
wrm@gn.apc.org
The
World Rainforest Movement's International Secretariat is at:
Casilla
de Correo 1539, Montevideo, Uruguay
Tel:
598 2 496192 Fax: 598 2 419222 Email: rcarrere@chasque.apc.org
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