Information not sourced from GFC’s approved documents is misinformation

Jan 23, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) is once again compelled to respond to another article riddled with false accusations and misinformation,  published in the Wednesday 21-1-2015 edition of Kaieteur News and captioned: “Bai Shan Lin and its operational control of Guyana’s forests” by Janette Bulkan.
Firstly, GFC asserts that it is the only official source for forest statistics relevant to Guyana; this includes leases issued, production and export data amongst others. Information not sourced from GFC’s approved documents is simply misinformation and /or a futile attempt at calculated distortion of facts.
It is also important for the public, inclusive of Janette Bulkan, to note that Guyana’s forestry sector has been subjected to many thorough recent comprehensive audits over the last three years by professional independent auditors who were contracted by the Kingdom of Norway, not Guyana. These audits focused on GFC’s management, administrative, operational and other systems and procedures amongst other areas.
The public reports of these audits show clearly that the GFC has transparent, appropriate, robust and functioning systems in place.
Specifically, these highly qualified and professional independent auditors did not find any evidence to support the farfetched and inaccurate claims being made repeatedly by Janette Bulkan about Bai Shan Lin having control over 1.45 M ha of state forest.
For clarity, the GFC restates the undisputed and well publicized fact that BSL has legal access to 627,072 ha as shown below:
344,849 ha as State Forest Exploratory Permits (SFEP’s) :(Sherwood ForestsInc., Bai Shan Lin International Forest Industry Development Co. Ltd.)- an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA); a Forest Inventory (FI), and a Business Plan have to be submitted to the satisfaction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and GFC before a Timber Sales Agreement (TSA) is granted which allows for full scale harvesting in accordance with GFC guidelines is approved.
274,053 ha as Timber Sales Agreement -Joint Venture Agreements- WAICO; Puruni Wood Products Inc; Kwebanna Wood Products; andHaimorakabra Logging Company Inc.
8,170 ha as State Forest Permissions
GFC has made copies of this documentation publicly available.  Janette Bulkan is also invited to visit the GFC to peruse same.
Janette Bulkan’s assertion that these JV’s are probably illegal is also baseless.
For clarity again, GFC repeats what has been publicized numerous times:
GFC Board of Directors as part of its work plan holds regular meetings with stakeholder groups across the country.
At these meetings, one of the major stakeholder concerns was the inadequate capacity of concessionaires (mainly locals) to beneficially occupy areas and produce sufficient quantities of logs/lumber for the local construction industry, as well as for the local added value manufacturers, and for export. The main constraints documented by these logging companies were a lack of appropriate machinery/equipment, and adequate financing.
The Concessionaires themselves proposed two short term measures to address this, namely:
–    GFC to allow joint venture arrangements after the requisite due diligence was done, and GFC was satisfied that the JV had merit
–    GFC to allow companies that lacked adequate and/or appropriate machinery to rent same from third parties in a structured and properly monitored/regulated manner.
Based on these requests by the sector; the need to improve log/lumber/added value production, and generate additional employment opportunities, and being assured by the GFC that its monitoring systems would ensure that the allowable harvest levels would not be exceeded, the GFC Board approved both requests.
GFC has since facilitated both requests in accordance with the legislation and a very transparent and organized procedure.
–    For example, it was collaboratively agreed (stakeholders/GFC/ GFC Board) that the procedure for the review of joint venture requests would be as follows:
–    A request to  enter into a joint venture arrangement needs to be made by the company/individual that has legal access to state forest
–    A thorough background assessment would be done on the company that is seeking to joint venture with the one that has the legal access to the forested land
–    This assessment would be used to guide the GFC in making its recommendations to the GFC Board Technical Sub-Committee
–    The GFC Technical Sub-Committee after their review would submit a recommendation to the GFC Board of Directors.
–    The GFC Board then makes its recommendation as to whether to approve/disapprove the joint venture.
This is in keeping with Section 16 of the Forests Act 2009.
BSL has entered into approved JV’s following this process, contrary to the unmerited claims by Janette Bulkan.
With respect to in country processing and added value manufacture of forest products, it is true that Bai Shan Lin has been very tardy in meeting their obligations and GFC/GoG is urging them to accelerate this phase of operations.
But the same applies to most local and foreign companies, many of whom have been in existence for decades before the advent of Bai Shan Lin.
Nevertheless, as stated, the GFC has impressed upon Bai Shan Lin and all other foreign and local companies, the need to accelerate meeting their stated commitments re the manufacture of added value forest products.
GFC would again appeal to stakeholders, especially those who choose to discuss issues in the public media, to verify the facts before publicizing erroneous information.
GFC once again invites Janette Bulkan and any other interested person(s) to visit the GFC, and the forest/logging operations to verify that GFC and Guyana are practicing sustainable forest management on the ground, in a very transparent and collaborative manner with our direct and indirect stakeholders.
There would be no constructive output if persons continue to misuse the public media to rehash misconceptions in pursuit of agendas not helpful to the sector.
James Singh
Commissioner of Forests

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