ACTION
ALERT
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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Logging
Increase in Guyana
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
4/15/98
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by EE
Following
is information relating to the dramatic increase of logging
in
Guyana. Surprise, surprise the culprit
is the very same company's
who
have excessively logged, or are planning to, most of the world's
remaining
rainforests. Hopefully, the rather
incomplete address
provided
will be sufficient to get messages through.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Logging Increase in Guyana
Source: South and Meso American Indian Rights
Center (SAIIC)
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to
source
Date: April 12, 1998
The
Amerindian Peoples Association of Guyana is requesting your
support
to protest unsustainable logging and violations of Indigenous
peoples'
rights in Guyana.
Guyana
has stated that it intends to increase logging by 300% in the
next 3
years. It has also extended state
forest lands to accommodate
additional
logging concessions and is negotiating new contracts for
more
logging. Presently, logging concession
cover at least 60% of
Guyana's
surface area and substantial areas of land occupied and used
by
Indigenous peoples, who use them for their basic subsistence needs.
Please
send a copy of the draft letter below, or your own version of
it, to
the President of Guyana. Please send
copies to the Amerindian
Peoples
Association of Guyana at fax. 592-2-70275 or by email:
apacoica@guyana.net.gy
Thank
you for your support.
_______________________________________________
Draft
Letter to:
Her
Excellency, Janet Jagan
President
of Guyana
Guyana
Your
Excellency:
We are
writing to express our concern about Guyana's plans to
substantially
increase logging in the coming years and outstanding
Amerindian
rights issues. We believe that Guyana's
forests, if
properly
managed, can provide a long term sustainable income for the
country
and local communities. An integral part
of sustainable forest
management
and compliance with Guyana's international human rights
obligations
is the full recognition of Amerindian land and resource
rights. These rights are based first and foremost on
Amerindian
occupation
and use of their lands and land titles and demarcation
thereof
should reflect this.
In the
past year, Guyana has granted Exploratory Leases for, among
others,
the newly extended state forest lands.
Many of the companies
involved
have dubious track records on environmental and human rights
matters.
Others are virtually unknown, but are suspected of being
front
companies for other companies with bad records. In particular,
we are
dismayed that Guyana has granted concessions to Berjaya Berhad,
a
notorious Malaysian company. Berjaya
has been in serious conflicts
with
environmentalists and Indigenous peoples in Malaysia and in
Suriname
and its management was thrown out of the Solomon Islands for
attempting
to bribe a government official.
Furthermore, Berjaya has
relations
with Rimbunan Hijau, a company that has systematically
abused
forest regulations in Papua New Guinea.
Other companies
operating
in Guyana are also suspected of being controlled by Rimbunan
Hijau.
Many of
these concessions affect Amerindians living in the rainforests
and
coastal areas of Guyana. While some of
these communities have
titles
to part of their ancestral lands, many others do not. In the
Barama
concession, for instance, there are four Amerindian communities
without
titles, and, therefore, without legal protection for their
lands and
the resources they depend upon for their basic subsistence
needs.
Even those communities that do have titles are affected by
logging
operations as much of the land they use for subsistence is
outside
of their titled areas and has been classified as state lands.
One
indication of this problem is that the 1969 Amerindian Lands
Commission
report recommended that title be granted to 24,000 square
miles -
Amerindians had submitted claims for 43,000 square miles -
whereas
the Government has only granted title to approximately 6000
square
miles. The titled area is less than one-quarter of that
recommended
by the Amerindian Lands Commission and less than one-
seventh
of that identified by Amerindians as theirs.
This failure to
recognise
title to the area recommended by the ALC, let alone the area
claimed
by Amerindians, is the root cause of many of the problems that
Amerindians
are experiencing with logging and mining operations.
With
few exceptions, Amerindians throughout Guyana have rejected
offers
to demarcate their titled lands as arbitrary and imposed. They
are
demanding that all outstanding land issues, including extensions
of
titles and titles for the communities that remain without them, be
addressed
before they will accept demarcation.
In
light of the preceding and Guyana's responsibility to the global
community
to protect the environment and recognise and respect the
rights
of Indigenous peoples, we respectfully request that: your
Government
suspend logging operations until Amerindian territorial
rights
are fully recognised in accordance with international human
rights
standards; your Government respect the wishes of the
communities
that have rejected demarcation and take serious steps
towards
addressing their grievances; your Government revise the 1976
Amerindian
Act to accord with international standards on the rights of
Indigenous
peoples, and; your Government take all necessary steps with
the
full participation and consent of Amerindian peoples to protect
and
sustainably manage Guyana's forests.
Your
respectfully,
-------------
South
and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC)
P.O.
Box 28703
Oakland
CA, 94604
Phone:
(510)834-4263 Fax: (510)834-4264
Email:
saiic@igc.apc.org
Office:
1714 Franklin Street, 3rd Floor, Oakland
Home
Page: http://www.nativeweb.org/saiic
For
more information about SAIIC, send an empty email message to:
saiic-info@igc.apc.org
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