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Parliament will have to wait until October to discuss Bai Shan Lin issue
Parliament will have to wait until October for any discussion on the activities of the Chinese Company Bai Shan Lin.
Parliamentarian
Joseph Harmon
Parliamentarian Joseph Harmon of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) on Monday, sought the intervention of the Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman, to call an “extraordinary sector committee meeting” to have Bai Shan Lin officials come to Parliament and explain their operations in Guyana.
Harmon told Kaieteur News last evening, that he has received correspondence from the Speaker which indicates that they would have to wait until October for any meeting to be called.
He said that this new development is nothing short of unfortunate, knowing the seriousness of the matter.
Harmon has insisted that he does not believe that the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) is showing the type of energy to facilitate an investigation of this magnitude.
He had expressed that all operations of logging should be halted immediately and Parliament should have been given a full explanation about what the company is doing.
Over the weekend, the (EPA) denied ever giving the Chinese company, Bai Shan Lin International Forest Development Inc. any permission to do logging. However, a senior official at the EPA said that as it stands right now, Bai Shan Lin is having meetings with them regarding “scoping”.
It was explained that “scoping” is another aspect of its Environmental Assessment which Bai Shan Lin needs to complete.
The official further told Kaieteur News that the EPA, once everything is done in accordance with the formal requirements, would grant Bai Shan Lin an “Environmental Authorization Permit” which gives the right to log and harvest timber.
But the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has denied that Bai Shan Lin was logging without a licence.
Bai Shan Lin International Forest Development Inc. is yet to receive a logging licence, but the company has teamed up with four others in joint ventures to export billions of dollars in timber monthly. Forestry officials explained that Bai Shan Lin International Forest Development does not have an actual licence for the exportation of logs. What the company has is a State Forest Exploration Permit.
That document allows the Chinese company to do an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment. The company is also required to do a forestry inventory and business plan which is to be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
To circumvent the requirements, Bai Shan Lin has opted for joint venture deals with Karbana Wood, Wiacho, Haimorakabra and Paruni Wood Inc. The official said that at present, the company should only be engaging in limited exploration logging.
In June, Bai Shan Lin submitted an application to the EPA seeking environmental authorization to undertake a large scale logging and sawmill operation. That application is still pending.
According to the public notice which was published in June, the company asked for the authorization for several areas, including the Left Bank Essequibo River, Right Bank Berbice River, Right Bank Essequibo River, Left Bank Corentyne River, Left Bank Lysles River, River Bank Berbice River and Right Bank Powis River, including Regions Nine and Six.
It was noted that the project would entail felling, extraction of timber and transporting the commodity to a processing facility. The company would also be doing grading, construction of roads, skid trails, bridges, culverts and camps with other ancillary facilities within the concession.
Bai Shan Lin has been granted a forestry concession that amounts to close on one million hectares of rainforest, from which it plans to extract logs and ship them out of Guyana. The company estimates that it will make US$1,800 from each hectare of land, giving it profits totaling US$1.7 billion, according to redd-monitor.org.
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