Empowering Youths across Guyana

Mar 12, 2016 News

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– Use of Wood as a Sustainable ‘green’ building material

By Mohabir Singh
Timber as an economic resource has never been used in an optimal way to maximize benefits to the Guyana Economy – GDP contribution, foreign exchange earnings and most importantly, in today’s context: addressing the scourge of high unemployment among our youths.
Indeed, the World Bank Mission Report on British Guiana, 1953 (page 64) stated as follows: “The main objectives of the recommended programme (with respect to timber) are:
I. To increase the output of lumber and wood products to meet the growing needs of the colony for development purposes.
II. To intensify production for export, particularly in species not well known in world trade.
III. To undertake a programme for long-range regeneration of exploited forestry areas.”
It is well known that wood is a sustainable building material and a “green building material”. It has low embodied energy and low carbon impact.
Embodied energy refers to the quantity of energy required to harvest, mine, manufacture and transport to the point of use, a material or product. Wood, a material that requires a minimum amount of energy based processing, has a low level of embodied energy relative to other materials used in construction, such as steel, concrete, aluminium or plastic.
When a forest is burned, the carbon is released into our atmosphere (a ‘bad’ thing), but if the wood is converted into something that will never be burned, such as a piano, furniture or building materials (purchased from any saw-miller), then the carbon is sequestered (stored) forever.
Indeed, when wood is kiln-dried, carbon sequestration takes place and should be adopted in the production of all furniture and builders’ joinery, such as doors, flooring, moulding, etc, and its practice should be enforced in Guyana to ensure customers receive value for money. The performance of our Forest Sector relative to job creation for youths is vividly illustrated by the following:
An extract from GFC’s Annual Review Information Report for the past five years:
Year Volume(m3) of Logs Export Class 1 Category Percent (%) Loss of Jobs *
2011 97,539 54,830 56.21 6,086
2012 82,875 50,026 60.36 5,553
2013 76,616 77,730 58.33 4,965
2014 138,502 80,331 58 8,917
2015 109,221 62,256 57 6,910

TOTAL: 504,699 295,173 32,431

* Note: (1) Source of Job Loss Calculation: The Vincente Molinos Report, (Section 3.2, page 21), commissioned by the Guyana Government and submitted to the Ministry of Finance in 1995.We are confident that significant changes pertaining to the structure of our Economy are imminent based on the following Policy Statements/Decisions by President David Granger, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Finance Minister Winston Jordan:
1. President Granger made the following points very cogently in his Inaugural Speech at the Providence National Stadium:
· “We must make more products from our Timbers”
· “Everyone needs not the greed of a few”
· “Fight poverty through wealth and job creation”
· “Poor hinterland infrastructure – key impediment to development”
2. The new Board of Directors of the Guyana Forestry Commission appointed by Minister Trotman appears committed to changes in policies relating to the “free for all export of logs” to Asia, to the detriment of thousands of youths, along our entire coastland and Hinterland areas, who could be gainfully employed.
3. The Finance Minister has summed it up very succinctly in his speech (November 2015) to the GMSA dinner audience:
I. Those in the manufacturing sector must use technology and innovation to become globally competitive.
II. Manufacturing in Guyana must become a key driver of rapid economic growth and the associated creation of employment, both directly and indirectly.
III. Minister Jordan said that a recent Caribbean Development Bank study estimates that youth unemployment is at 40%.
IV. “… Our President is keenly interested in tackling youth unemployment and one way of doing so is to encourage entrepreneurship among our youths.”

(i – IV reported in Kaieteur News – November 21, 2015)
Guyanese are therefore urged to use wood to the maximum in their homes and offices, since as a country we are well within the annual macro maximum allowable cut consistent with our agreement with Norway – LCDS (Low Carbon Development Strategy). What is needed, as a matter of great urgency is for the firms that are engaged in the wood sector to be innovative and use the best technology available to optimize yield in the sawing of wood and to produce a product that can last for a century, if the wood is kiln-dried and appropriate wood-processing technology is employed.
Those who have been engaged in the sector for the past 25-60 years could rightfully ask the rhetorical question – “But where is the Policy Support for re-tooling, which is inextricably linked to suitable financing intermediation?” My answer would be: – we have confidence in the pronouncement of H.E. The President, Ministers Jordan and Trotman, the Presidential Advisor on Youth Empowerment, Mr. Aubrey Norton, and the Cabinet to make it happen, as the future of Guyana in the immediate short term (5-10 years) depends on a drastic change in the structure of the economy, – away from mercantilism and primary production to adding value to one of its most important sustainable resources – timber.

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