ECHO asks GFC to make Gov’t/ Bai Shan Lin logging agreements public

Sep 01, 2014 News

The Environmental Community Health Organization (ECHO) has requested of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) to make public, logging agreements made between the government and Chinese company Bai Shan Lin.
In order to assess the environmental condition of the hinterland logging locations, the environmental body is also asking that agreements with all lumber harvesting companies be made available. The body says it is concerned that unhealthy logging practices may be occurring in the interior locations.

ECHO’s Royston King

According to the request sent by Head of the organization Royston King, the provision of the documents will, “facilitate our assessment of the natural environmental situation in our hinterlands, where logging operations are allowed by the Guyana Forestry Commission.”
He noted that, “As an environmental organization, we are also concerned about the apparent wanton destruction of our environment since there is no evidence that Bia Shan Lin is either replanting or felling trees in a manner to secure our biosphere.” He said the organization would be grateful if the information requested could be made available as early as possible.
The request has been copied to international organizations such as PAHO/WHO, the Natural Resources Minister Robert Persaud, the British High Commission, the US Embassy, the Environmental Protection Agency, Head of Go-Invest, and Green Peace’s local representative among several other prominent organizations.
It was recently made public that Chinese Company Bai Shan Lin has been conducting large scale logging activities despite them not having the required permission to do so. Kaieteur News had exposed that the company had apparently found a way to conduct logging activities through smaller local logging companies.
However, the public was not made aware of the extent and manner in which the company has been harvesting the country’s lumber. They were neither told about the proceeds of this investment. To date, citizens are still to be told the amount of money government has garnered from the lumber harvested and exported by the Chinese company.
The Administration and the GFC also came in for stiff criticism by persons who expressed discontent in the way the logging sector was being handled. Criticism intensified when allegations rose about the Chinese company paying local workers as low as $500 a day, working in poor conditions.
ECHO staged protest action at the office of the Minister responsible for Natural Resources and the GFC, demanding that logging operations cease until logging agreements are made clear.
Commissioner James Singh of the GFC has declared, however, that the Chinese company’s operations are aboveboard.
He said that the country’s harvesting of logs is way below the annual 1.6M cubic meters that is required and the sector is currently operating at just over a 30 per cent level, so there is no question of over-harvesting of logs, as is being reported.