Govt. to redistribute fraction of lands surrendered by logging companies

Dec 10, 2016 News

By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell

Government has decided to redistribute 1.1 million hectares of forest land that has been reverted to

Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman

the State during 2016. This was disclosed by Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman during his recent address to the National Assembly.
On Thursday evening, Trotman took the floor of the National Assembly to make his contribution to the 2017 Budget debates. His presentation touched on all areas falling under his responsibility as policy maker in the area of Natural Resources.
Addressing forestry, Trotman told the House about the woes experienced by the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) in 2016. He said that the sector faced several challenges in 2016 “but there are new opportunities with the potential to bring significant growth and development to the sector.”
Trotman recalled that the global timber market faced serious challenges in maintaining the previous high level of demand and pricing of timber. He said that during this year, the previously resilient market for Wamara, one of the highly demanded species in 2015, showed a drastic decline in both demand and price.
The Minister said that concurrently, several large forest concessions were reverted to the State for reasons including: expiration and non-renewal; and actions taken against concessionaires who fail to abide by investment agreements. And, while there are areas remaining in the allocation system, there is an overall trend of low levels of productivity from concessions, especially large concessions. He said that there are also some concessions that have shown low or no production for the past five years. This underutilization of allocated areas limits development.

REDISTRIBUTION
Trotman also indicated that there will be a redistribution of lands. He said that a total area of 2.2 million hectares of forest were reverted to the State in 2016 and is available for reallocation. The Minister said that it is estimated that during 2017, at least half of this area will be open to expressions of interest from prospective investors.
The Minister added, “It is planned that by June 2017, forest planning and harvesting in these designated areas will begin. Areas for small and medium scale and local operators will be prioritized. Together with the planned allocation from the available vacant areas, there is the potential to generate approximately 100,000m3 in 2017 as a startup.”
Turning his attention to production, Trotman said that the forestry sector contributed approximately US$40M-US$60M in export value over the past 10 years. While, production levels of timber and plywood were between 400,000 m3 to 500,000m3 annually. “However, the production level for 2016 is projected to be 320,000 m3 which is 30 percent below the 2015 level of 450,000m3, while export value is projected to be at US$38M, a 15% decline from 2015 – US$46M. In 2017, the projected production level is expected to recover at 380,000m3 and the total export value is projected at US$42 M.”