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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Illegal Logging Discovered in Guyana

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

4/26/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

The Guyanese/Malaysian-owned UNAMCO timber company has been flagrantly

violating the laws of Guyana. They illegally commenced logging prior

to being given approval and are building logging roads without an

Environmental Impact Assessment. Asian logging companies which have

devastated Sarawak, Malaysia's forests, left much of Indonesian

smouldering, aggressively destroyed the Solomon Islands forest

ecosystem and have now been thrown out, and are in full boom in Papua

New Guinea are now revving up to take out the Guyanese and Amazon

rainforest expanses. Predatory logging is not a pretty sight; doing

little to improve the lot of local peoples, and leaving a legacy of

destroyed forest ecosystems and shredded biodiversity, which preclude

even an adequate subsistence base in the future. A handful of

companies are threatening the biological heritage of the world's

rainforests with totally inappropriate predatory logging.

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Title: Illegal Logging Discovered in Guyana

Source: Forest Peoples Programme of World Rainforest Movement

Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source

Date: April 20, 1998

/** rainfor.genera: 80.0 **/

** Topic: ILLEGAL LOGGING DISCOVERED IN GUYANA **

** Written 4:05 AM Apr 23, 1998 by gn:wrm in cdp:rainfor.genera **

FOREST PEOPLES PROGRAMME

Guyana Information Update

20 April,1998

Illegal Logging Discovered in Guyana

While inspecting a logging road in November 1997, an officer of the

Guyana Forestry Commission discovered that Guyanese/Malaysian-owned,

UNAMCO, had been logging its concession without permission. Less than

a week after the discovery of this illegal logging, the President of

Guyana held a ceremony to open the main logging road in the

concession, despite the fact that the EIA on the road had been

rejected as inadequate by the Environmental Protection Agency. The

EIA for the road still had not been approved in April 1998.

It was later confirmed that UNAMCO had cut at least 15,000 trees

illegally and was operating without approval for its Environmental

Impact Assessment for the logging concession, Forest Management Plan

and Operations Plan. This is also illegal in Guyana. The company was

fined a paltry US$7,142 by a special government committee established

to investigate the situation. The estimated value of the illegally

felled trees is US$6.75 million. UNAMCO owes the government US$37,142

in outstanding acreage fees on other concessions. These arrears date

back to the beginning of 1997. UNAMCO claims that it has not made a

Guyana cent from its operations in Guyana for the past three years.

The illegal logging activity took place either in a 237,000 acre

Timber Sales Agreement concession held by UNAMCO since 1992 or in one

of the controversial Exploratory Leases issued by the Government.

There are conflicting reports in both the media and from the

Government concerning exactly where the illegal activity took place.

UNAMCO, which is owned by Guyanese company, Case Timbers (15%) and

Malaysian company, Tenaga Khemas in the name of Villupillai

Kanagalingan (85%), was recently granted an Exploratory Lease of

345,000 hectares. 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. It does

not permit logging for commercial purposes. The legislation

authorizing Exploratory Leases was passed in July 1997 over the

objections of opposition parties, Indigenous peoples and

environmentalists who urged that the law be withdrawn. The opposition

parties 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."

Case Timbers, which is also 80% owned by Tenaga Khemas, is scheduled

to get an Exploratory Lease of 500,000 acres contiguous with its

existing concession of 154,000 acres and an existing concession held

by UNAMCO, which is 237,000 acres. 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.

Villupillai Kanagalingan, the head of Tenaga Khemas has openly

admitted that he holds his interest in both Case and UNAMCO for the

notorious Malaysian company, Berjaya Berhad. Both Case and UNAMCO are

working jointly with Berjaya in existing concessions in Guyana.

Berjaya, which was expelled from the Solomon Islands from attempting

to bribe a government official, will also get an Exploratory Lease of

780,000 hectares in the recently extended state forest lands in

Southern Guyana. State forests were extended by 11.3 million acres in

1997 to allow for Exploratory Leases for Malaysian companies, Solid

Timbers and Kwitaro (Mafira Group), each of which received 780,000

hectares, in addition to Berjaya's 780,000 hectares. Berjaya

therefore holds either in its own name or through its interests in

Case and UNAMCO somewhere around 2 million hectares of forestry

concessions in Guyana.

Berjaya has connections with Malaysian conglomerate, Ribunan Hijau,

that has been responsible for the systematic abuse of environmental

and forestry laws in Papua New Guinea. Rimbunan Hijau is suspected to

be the owner of at least one other company obtaining an Exploratory

Lease in Guyana and is also rumored to have interests in the Prime

Group, another company with logging concessions in Guyana.

Consequently, it is possible that Ribunan Hijau is the secret holder

of a large percentage of the timber concessions in Guyana.

The government of Guyana estimates that present (reported) logging

rates of 240,000 cubic metres per annum is expected to increase to 1

million cubic metres within the next 3-5 years. It cites the

Exploratory Leases as an example of its commitment to sustainable

development and management of its tropical forests. However, as the

UNAMCO case illustrates, the opposition of Indigenous peoples and

environmentalists was justified as the companies involved cannot be

trusted to follow the law and as the government is incapable, if not

unwilling, to monitor the companies operations and enforce the law in

a meaningful way. Illegal activity in the UNAMCO concession was

discovered only by accident and the fine levied hardly indicates that

the government is intent on deterring further violations. Not only

has UNAMCO not paid its dues for over a year on existing concessions

and violated the law on more than one count, the government will also

give Exploratory Leases to another company (Case Timbers) with

identical ownership to UNAMCO and to Berjaya, which holds a majority

interest in both of these companies.

Since the fine was announced, UNAMCO has aggressively tried to have

the Guyana Forestry Commission removed from any further dealings with

the matter. In a letter to the President of Guyana, UNAMCO's director

described relations between his company and the GFC as "critical." He

urged the president to intervene directly and "decisively" to resolve

the dispute. A meeting with the president was held in early March,

but the decisions made there have not been made public. A week later,

the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Roger Luncheon, stated that

the President and the Government solidly back UNAMCO's operations and

investment in Guyana's forests. Referring to criticism of UNAMCO by

the media, Luncheon said, "People don't recognise how negative an

impact this could have on our economic development if they (UNAMCO)

decide to abandon Guyana." Luncheon went on to say that the UNAMCO

incident had to viewed in the context of a number of collateral issues

including, "a well orchestrated campaign to discredit Malaysian

investors in the forestry sector; the fact that other operators in the

local industry are guilty of similar or more serious transgressions

and that UNAMCO's relations with the GFC were very rocky."

As stated in an editorial in Guyanese newspaper, the Starbroek News,

"The intervention by President Janet Jagan effectively took the issue

out of the ambit of the GFC and the Minister responsible for forestry.

It sent a signal that big forestry operators could bypass essential

requirements set out by the GFC by appealing directly to the head of

government. It thereby undermines the authority of the GFC which has

sweeping and onerous obligations in acting as conservator of forests

and ensuring that operators abide by the tenants of good forestry

practice." The GFC is weak and understaffed as it is, if it has to

constantly worry about logging companies undermining its authority by

running to the President it will never have the credibility or

authority needed to ensure that logging operations are conducted

sustainably. The response of the government of Guyana speaks volumes

about where its priorities lie. It is willing to appease a logging

company fined for illegal activities in the name of national

development when the company involved claims to not make any money and

is over a year behind in paying its dues to the national treasury.

Moreover, it is unclear whether UNAMCO has paid or intends to pay the

fine levied against it.

In addition to claims about the sustainability of logging Guyana, the

government also claims that logging activities take place with due

regard for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Guyana. It says that

"legitimate" Indigenous lands are not included in logging areas.

"Legitimate" Indigenous lands in Guyana are those recognized by the

government. Many communities in Guyana remain without recognized

rights to their lands and those that do have them almost unanimously

state that these lands are inadequate for basic subsistence purposes

and do not correspond to the full extent of their ancestral lands.

They point out that the Amerindian Lands Commission, established as a

condition of Guyana's independence to identify Indigenous lands,

recommended that title be granted to 24,000 square miles out of 43,000

square miles identified by Indigenous peoples as theirs. To date, the

government has recognized title to less than 6000 square miles, or

less than a quarter of that recommended by the Commission and about

one-seventh of that identified by Indigenous peoples as theirs. In

short, logging does take place on Indigenous lands in Guyana.

The government also points to efforts to demarcate Indigenous lands as

evidence of its commitment to ensure that Indigenous lands is

safeguarded from logging operations. It does not say, however, that

Indigenous peoples throughout Guyana have rejected government

demarcation as arbitrary and imposed and have demanded that all

outstanding land issues, including titles for communities without them

and title extensions for others, are addressed prior to demarcation.

Indigenous communities have even chased government surveyors off their

lands to ensure that their lands are demarcated according to their

rights under international law rather than by government definitions.

The government also does not say that it routinely ignores Indigenous

communities when granting concessions for both logging and mining. It

does not consult with affected communities, let alone seek their

approval.

According to the Amerindian Peoples Association, Guyana's primary

Indigenous organization, "The recent case of the UNAMCO highlights the

inadequacy of the GFC to monitor logging operations. If this

situation has been taking place with UNAMCO and has only now been

found out, how many other irregular activities are taking place in

other concessions throughout Guyana. These concessions were granted

without Amerindian participation, without regard for Amerindian land

and other rights and as illustrated by this case, these companies are

abusing the forest on which many Amerindians depend for their basic

livelihood. The Wapisiana people in Region 9 have previously expressed

concerns about an exploratory lease given to Malaysian company,

Kwitaro that includes their ancestral lands. In light of these events,

the APA once again calls upon the Government to halt logging

operations, until the rights of Amerindians to own and control their

ancestral territories and forest resources are fully recognized in

accordance with international law."

For further information please contact,

Forest Peoples Programme

1c, Fosseway Business Centre

Stratford Road

Moreton-in-Marsh, GL56 9NQ

United Kingdom

Tel. 44. 1608. 652. 893.

Fax. 44. 1608. 652. 878

Email : wrm@gn.apc.org

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