Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
Robert Persaud tells Parlaimentary Committee…Bai Shan Lin’s forest claims bogus
Chinese company, Bai Shan Lin, does not have access to close to a million hectares of rainforest in Guyana as part of its mega
Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud
investment plans, Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud said yesterday.
“It is wrong; it is misleading. And if Bai Shan Lin is saying that, it should withdraw it— and withdraw it immediately, because it is false,” Persaud told the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources. He said that the company only has access to 640,000 hectares of forest, with the majority being for various studies.
Regarding forests the company has access to, Commissioner of Forests, James Singh said, that Bai Shan Lin has two state forest permits. He said such permits are issued for a period of three years, and during that time the company has to do an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, along with a forest inventory. In addition, Singh said the company has to develop a business plan.
Singh said that it is only if these documents receive a favourable review by the Forestry Commission’s Board, that the company can be issued with a Timber Sales Agreement (TSA) that would allow it to extract trees. The two state forest permits encompass three proposed forestry concession sites.
According to the draft Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), the proposed concession areas are in Regions Six and Nine. According to Singh the two state forest permits, give Bai Shan Lin access to 345,000 hectares of forest.
The permit for Area A and B was issued on November 4, 2011, and the permit for Area C was issued on April 26, 2013.
Apart from this, the company is involved in joint ventures with four local companies through which it has access to some 280, 000 hectares of forest from which it can harvest timber for export.
Those joint ventures are with Sherwood Forests, Haimorakabra Logging, Puruni Woods, and Kwebana Wood Products.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, Mr. Rickford Vieira, who accompanied Minister Persaud to face the Parliamentary Committee, said that Bai Shan Lin currently has in its possession 20 claims of one mile each to mine for gold, and not 20 kilometers as the company has claimed.
Those mining claims are not in Bai Shan Lin’s name, but are under the name of a Guyanese. While it mines these concessions, the company has been issued with two prospecting licences, Vieira stated.
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