A plea to the Guyana Forestry Commission

Oct 09, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
I read with disbelieving eyes that Dr. Janet Bulkan said that the ban of greenheart by the UK is entirely correct on the basis of her interpretation. I have a few questions to ask her before I show that her statement is just emotional and very anti-Guyanese.
First as a forestry sector stakeholder, I felt very happy when Dr. Bulkan was elected to the GFC Board. I felt that she would give very sensible advice and in some way help to ease the mountain of rules that GFC forces me to comply with. I expected that she would bring relief to the general sector.
But here, she is instead attacking the forestry sector! Damaging our markets! She is someone who people listen to and when she writes this nonsense, it destroys Guyana as a market place.
My first question is, shouldn’t board members discuss valid issues at the board level before going public? Have these issues been discussed and if so, did the board give approval for it to be public. If yes, why did it not come from the Board of Directors and not Dr. Bulkan?
The second question is that isn’t board information supposed to be confidential? Are board members supposed to be confidential in how they write? Isn’t there a law that prevents Dr. Bulkan from writing these things and using her position as a board member to get this confidential information and release it with her spin? I beg the Hon. President and Minister Harmon and Minister Trotman to investigate this state of affairs.
I attend many GFC meetings and as a forester and logger, I know the reality. I want to cry when I see 2 or 3 lovely big trees close to each other and I can’t cut it because of GFC’s rules. I study sometimes the money I would lose because I am not allowed to cut proximity trees as GFC calls it. But I don’t cut it because I know that the forest officer would catch me when doing stump inspection. And I would lose more.
I have to first measure trees, then cut in certain direction and tag everything then write down species, measurement, date, m3, tag number, things which I never did in school, the GFC is forcing me to do and I have to do it otherwise there will be problems. If I cut in a restricted buffer area the GFC seizes my things. Did Dr. Bulkan ever experience these things? How many times did she go into the logging camp and experience the pests and dangers? What does she benefit from this? Does it increase her salary at the university to criticise her country and Guyanese?
I cut on a SFP and that is a set of rules already for SFM but I know that large TSA has a more rigid system to follow.
And I read too, but probably not the same book that Dr. Bulkan read because I learnt that Norway and EU sent down experts to audit our forest and practices. I know about EU Flegt. All these people are field and book experts too. They have much higher qualification and experience than Dr. Bulkan.
These auditors say in these reports that Guyana practices SFM; that Guyana harvests less than 35 % of allowable harvest; that Guyana has implementation of SFM; that Guyana has low deforestation and sustainability; that we are doing a good job but need more added value and little log exports. That will come later.
The auditor experts gave Guyana a star. But the “expert Dr. Bulkan says no. So who do I believe? The other experts have real facts to back up their story, unlike you.
As a concerned logger who depends on the forestry for my income, I beg the government and GFC Board to act now.
Terence Williams

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