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‘Mining’ other people’s business can be good for business

Feb 14, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor.
More often than not roads built by forest concessions open the way for mining activity.
This was certainly the case when Unamco built its 50-mile access road connecting West Bank Kwakwani to Marlissa in the Upper Berbice along with 120 miles of internal forest roads.
This network of jungle roads has made it possible for people to move material, equipment and personnel around the forest by vehicle.
Once this opening of densely forested land began miners used the infrastructure to locate minable resources wherever these could be found. In all cases their exploratory and extractive activity was limited to areas Unamco had already visited and opened up.
During the time that I managed Unamco I am unaware of any instance of miners cutting trees irresponsibly or despoiling any of the 237,000 acres of forest in any way.
In fact the mining community was a boon to Unamco’s operations in many significant ways particularly during the timber company’s protracted start-up phase. At one stage an enumeration team sent in to take stock of the concession’s trees ran out of food and fuel after a series of mishaps including breakdown of a helicopter shortly after leaving Timehri laden with food, medical supplies and other badly needed stocks.
This was Christmas 1995 and the 50-man crew in the forest was nearing starvation when miners operating in the Unamco forest provided a life line which not only included food but also pharmaceuticals and fuel. They saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars and probably a few lives.
On another occasion two trainee tree spotters wandered into a jaguar’s lair and were ‘backed out’ by a group of concerned miners who knew the territory well.
Miners were our unpaid environmental caretakers and routinely reported signs of illegal logging to our camp managers as well as signs of degradation and pollution. Miners were very helpful in mapping out the forest and indicating where the better greenheart stands could be found. In fact thanks to miners the timber company was able to save millions of dollars, man hours and lives.
At one time in 1997 two intrepid German tourists who were lost having been abandoned by their Guyanese guides, stumbled on a mining camp not far from Christmas Falls on the Berbice River.
The miners kindly fed them and quickly brought them to one of Unamco’s forest camps in an area called Cuyuwini.
The Germans were then given sustenance and comfort before being taken to Kwakwani en route to my office in Georgetown. The lost Germans soon returned home but come regularly to Guyana to spend their tourist dollars in pursuit of eco-adventure.
The point of this letter is to illustrate that the mining and forest communities do co-exist harmoniously in the bush and in fact look out for each other.
Attempts by letter and article writers to pit one against the other so as to divide and rule will never work.
The ‘bush’ has its own rules, its own culture and its own guiding principles— it creates a sense of brotherhood and togetherness that is missing in the built environment. In a sense ‘mining’ other people’s business is good for business.
F. Hamley Case

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