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Bai Shan Lin and its operational control of Guyana’s forests

Jan 21, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
Twice in the last few days the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has re-asserted in the government-owned or –related Press that the Chinese transnational logger Bai Shan Lin has legal access to a much smaller area than was claimed by CEO Chu WenZe in November 2012; see http://www.redd-monitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cwz-en.pdf.
CEO Chu claimed that his China Forest Industry Group (Hong Kong), comprised Bai Shan Lin companies and related entities, controlled 960,000 ha.  In contrast, Commissioner James Singh of the GFC said that ‘The undisputed and well publicized fact is that BSL has legal access to 627,072 hectares (ha)’ (Guyana Times Letter to the Editor, 15 January 2015).
In my letter to Stabroek News of 18 September 2014 (‘Concessions controlled by Bai Shan Lin show GFC’s fragile understanding of forest legislation’) I referred to the previous estimates and noted that with the recent addition of two Timber Sales Agreements held in the name of Willems Timber & Trading, rented to Harry Rambarran and now apparently controlled by Bai Shan Lin (‘Roger Khan company, Harry Rambarran in court battle over Willems Timber’ SN, 14 September 2014), the total under BSL control exceeds 1.4 million ha.
Tabulating the concessions, the estimates are –
Bai Shan Lin  – concessions operationally controlled in Guyana, 2014
(including information from the GFC Commissioner James Singh, 07Aug2014 and 18Aug2014.  * before the concession number means that the licence was copied to the GMSA.  JV means that the GFC approved a joint venture (= legal renting) during the year indicated.  Note that illegal renting may have taken place before approval of a JV)

Concession number Concession name Area in hectares Source
TSAs      
02/1985 Nagasar Sawh 29,175  Informant, Dec2012
10/1985 Willems Timber & Trading 55,985 SN 14Sep2014
01/1991 Willems Timber & Trading 56,616 SN 14Sep2014
02/1991, 03/1991 Demerara Timbers Ltd. JV 2007 491,854  BSL claimed 522,297 in Nov2012
*01/1999 WAICO (Wood Associated Industries Ltd.) JV 2009 26,085  James Singh GFC 18Aug2014
03/2005 Garner Forest Industries 92,737  Informant, Oct2013
*01/2007 Puruni Woods Products Inc. JV 2014 107,711  James Singh GFC 18Aug2014
*04/2009 Kwebanna Wood Products JV 2014 87,361  James Singh GFC 18Aug2014
? Karlam South American Timber (Guyana) Inc. 105,056  Chu WenZe Nov2012
*01/2011 Haimorakabra Logging Company Inc. A+B JV 2007 52,896  James Singh GFC 18Aug2014
Sub-total – TSAs   1,105,476  By addition
SFPs

*Ess 008/2014 and *Ess 009/2014

 Bai Shan Lin 8,170 Letter from James Singh GFC to Kaieteur News, 07Aug2014
SFEPs      
*01/2007 Sherwood Forrests Inc. 167,066  Chu WenZe Nov2012
*01/2011 Baishanlin International Forest Industry Development Co. Ltd. area A 41,414  Chu Wenze Nov2012, A+B = 104768 ha GFC 18Aug2014
*01/2011 Baishanlin International Forest Industry Development Co. Ltd. area B 63,360  Chu WenZe Nov2012
*01/2013 Baishanlin International Forest Industry Development Co. Ltd. area C 73,015 James Singh GFC 18Aug2014
Sub-total – SFEPs   344,849 Letter from James Singh to Kaieteur News, 07Aug2014
Total – Bai Shan Lin   1,458,495  By addition of sub-totals
       
Barama Co. Ltd.   1,601,577  Inserted for comparison

 

The Commissioner of the GFC has had months to respond about these specific areas, but has chosen instead to make generalizations about GFC’s procedures.  The GFC has provided to the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association copies of the concession licences only for those indicated with an asterisk.
In a previous article (‘How Bai Shan Lin acquired the several areas of State Forest which are now in its 1.3+ million hectares empire’, Stabroek News 28 August 2014), I indicated how some of the renting or private sales of forest concessions – ‘joint ventures’ – were probably illegal (pending contradiction by formal publication of such prior approvals, with date-stamping of signatures before the dates of any joint venture contracts).
I noted that the total area of these probably illegal renting or joint ventures was over half of BSL’s forest empire in Guyana.
I reference citizens’ rights under Articles 13 and 146 of the National Constitution and I reference the REDD+ Governance Development Plan agreed with Norway with its commitment to greater transparency in the forest sector.
If Commissioner Singh of the GFC is so sure of the legality of these holdings, would he now place in the public domain – such as the GFC and LCDS websites – the full details of the approvals.
The documents should include cross reference to the exact sections of the law and the regulations operative at the time of the approvals, and should include the date-stamped signatures and the entries from the Deeds Register to show who were the company directors on both sides of the joint venture at the times of each approval.
Can we also see in the public domain the details of the joint venture agreements in each case?  Will the GFC Commissioner also place copies of all these documents, duly notarised as true copies, in the National Assembly for the scrutiny of the Natural Resources sectoral committee which has responsibility for overseeing the forest sector’s administration by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Guyana Forestry Commission.
Later on, we can call on the GFC to explain how Bai Shan Lin’s focus on the production and purchase of logs of the timbers itikiboraballi and wamara (as shown in the Kaieteur News overflight of the Bissaruni log sorting yard in August 2014 and as seen at BSL riverside location at Coverden) for export to processing factories in China matches the investment promises made by BSL for the last seven years.
The GFC could also explain how this massive over-harvesting of preferred commercial species matches the GFC’s claims to sustainable forest management.
Janette Bulkan

 

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