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Forestry Training Centre attracts meagre response
… but regional companies take full advantage – James Singh
James Singh
Local timber companies are not taking advantage of the Reduced Impact Logging courses offered by the Guyana Forestry Commission at its Forestry Training Centre, Manaka, Cuyuni River.
Commissioner of Forestry James Singh yesterday said that, while he is disappointed at the response by local companies to the centre, their regional counterparts are taking full advantage of the programmes the centre offers.
“Regional companies are showing more interest in the programme that is second to none in the region,” Singh said.
The training at the centre, he pointed out, is highly subsidised.
Participants who enrol at the institution not only witness demonstrations and follow lectures, but are given a hands-on experience in good directional felling and skidding practices.
Directional felling allows for the feller to throw the tree in a position from where the skidder can extract it without any difficulties whilst causing minimal damage.
Persons from Grenada, Belize, Suriname and Trinidad have been trained at the centre.
While Government is the major funder for the institution, which costs some $36M per year to maintain, additional funding is obtained from the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), the United States Government and other donor agencies.
At present, persons who are trained at the facility have to pay a minimal fee, but Singh said that the commission is looking towards having the institution self-sustainable.
During a visit to the centre late last year, Minister of Agriculture with Responsibility for Forestry, Robert Persaud, had stated that the contribution of the private sector to the centre is very minimal, and as such interventions are being sought to strategise the way forward for the centre.
He noted that a plan needs to be developed, since the current source of funding from International Tropical Timber Organisation, of which Guyana is a member, will soon ‘dry up’.
The Minister stated that tremendous resources are being pumped into the facility by the GFC to ensure that the knowledge and guidance are offered to the sector to maintain Guyana’s status as a world-class leader in sustainable forestry management.
He had also stated that efforts are being made to have the centre grow in order to be responsive to the changing needs of the requirements of the forestry sector.
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