Despite international warnings, criticisms…Guyana will not end relationship with China - GFC

Despite international warnings, criticisms…Guyana will not end relationship with China — GFC

Sep 07, 2014 News

Even though international environmental critics have appealed to tropical countries to be wary of China’s “appetite for destruction” and have deemed the economic superpower as the “kingpin of illegal trade in lumber,” the Guyana Forestry Commission has said that it is unlikely that Guyana will end its relationship with China.

James Singh, Commissioner of Forest

“We continue to ensure that all companies respect the laws. I am not worried because the Chinese companies have obeyed our laws,” Forest Commissioner, James Singh, said recently.
On Friday, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment in collaboration with the Forest Products Development and Marketing Council, held a seminar which focused on the incentives and investment opportunities for value added processing within the forestry sector.
Singh, when asked whether he was at all worried by the fact that there have been international reports and criticisms of China for its cynical role of protecting its own forests but being involved in illegal logging, said that he had not seen such reports or criticisms.
The Forest Commissioner said that he is not at all worried. The Commission has been steadfast in its role of maintaining and protecting Guyana’s forests. He insisted that Guyana’s deforestation rate is low and that there have been commendable efforts by his officers to ensure that certain illegalities do not take place regardless of whether firms in the forestry sector are local or foreign.
He said, too, that he does not believe that Guyana’s relationship with China is an abusive one. He reminded that the Commission had proposed the banning of log shipments but “other stakeholders” felt otherwise.
An official of the forestry commission added that it is unlikely that Guyana will end its relationship with China whose companies are “respectful of Guyana’s laws.”
“I am quite sure that stakeholders involved would not want to end such a longstanding relationship. China has been very good to this country even outside of its interest in the forestry sector.”
The comments of the Commissioner and the official appear to be in stark contrast to the evidence uncovered by this publication and other media entities. These point to irregularities, particularly by Bai Shan Lin.
The Chinese company, together with the Forestry Commission, has been on an image-repairing campaign with paid advertisements in the local media refuting all articles which expose its “wanton abuse of Guyana’s forests.”
On news.mongabay.com in an article captioned’Exporting deforestation’: China is the kingpin of illegal trade in lumber’ a writer detailed a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is an independent campaigning organization committed to bringing about change that protects the natural world from environmental crime and abuse.
In its latest report, the EIA said that China has become the number one importer of illegal wood products from around the world. China’s unwillingness to tackle its vast appetite for illegal timber means the trade continues to decimate forests worldwide.
“China is now the biggest importer, exporter, and consumer of illegal timber in the world,” the report, Appetite for Destruction: China’s Trade in Illegal Timber, stated.
The EIA report estimates that in 2011, China imported at least 18.5 million cubic meters of illegal logs and sawn timber, worth around $3.7 billion. Taken together, this amount would fill nearly a million standard 20-foot shipping containers. “China is now effectively exporting deforestation around the world,” Faith Doherty, head of EIA’s Forests Campaign, explains in a statement.
To support this point, the EIA said that in 2011, China imported at the very least, 11.8 million cubic meters of illegal raw logs. Forty-seven percent of these illegal logs (5.6 million cubic meters) came from Russia while 21 percent (2.5 million cubic meters) came from Papua New Guinea.
The remaining illegal logs came from the Solomon Islands (12 percent), Myanmar (4 percent), Republic of the Congo (4 percent), Equatorial Guinea (2 percent), and Mozambique (1.5 percent).
The report warns that once China exhausts forests in one country, it moves onto another. “Ironically, even as China has increasingly depended on raw logs and timber from abroad, it has undertaken herculean efforts to grow and protect forests at home. In the last two decades, China’s forest cover has grown by 30 percent—while forest cover worldwide continues to plummet,” reads the report.
In the meantime, the report also recommends that nations keep a wary eye on imports from China.
According to an online paper “China’s Appetite for Wood takes a Heavy Toll on Forests,” done by William Laurence, a distinguished research professor, he said that more than half of the timber now shipped globally is destined for China. “But unscrupulous Chinese companies are importing huge amounts of illegally harvested wood, prompting conservation groups to step up boycotts against rapacious timber interests.”
Laurence noted that China is increasingly seen as a predator on the world’s forests. He said, too, that China is now overwhelmingly the biggest global consumer of tropical timber, importing around 40 to 45 million cubic meters of timber annually.
He said that China faces three criticisms by those worried about the health and biodiversity of the world’s forests. One was that the country and its hundreds of wood-products corporations and middlemen have been remarkably aggressive in pursuing timber supplies globally, while generally being little concerned with social equity or environmental sustainability.
“For instance, China has helped fund and promote an array of ambitious new road or rail projects that are opening up remote forested regions in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Asia-Pacific to exploitation. Such frontier roads can unleash a Pandora’s Box of activities — including illegal colonization, hunting, mining, and land speculation — that are often highly destructive to forests,” the researcher expressed.
Laurence said that a 2011 report on illegal logging by Interpol and the World Bank concluded that among 15 of the major timber-producing countries in the tropics, two-thirds had half or more of their timber harvested illegally.
He said that globally, economic losses and tax and royalty evasion from illegal logging are thought to cost around US$15 billion annually — a large economic burden for developing nations. He said, too, that forest ecosystems suffer serious impacts as well, because illegal loggers frequently ignore environmental controls on cutting operations.