Dr. Janette Bulkan is wrong for the following reasons

Oct 24, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor;
I have great respect for Ms. Janette Bulkan.  Around the year 2000, Ms. Bulkan recommended me for the position of member of the Guyana National Initiative on Forest Certification Board. My role was to bring the experience and knowledge of the poor loggers to the menu of discussions which has, and still is, being dominated by academia.
I would like to make the following observations on Ms. Bulkan’s writings:
1. Unpatriotic:
Putting Guyanese loggers out of work.
Trying to make Guyana a pariah on the logging markets of the Western World.
Chasing away international investors in the forestry sector to Suriname.
Denigrating one of the best regulatory bodies in the forestry sector in the developing world (GFC).
Not trying to convince foreign user of Guyanese greenheart that is being harvested sustainably (John Williams letter to the editor KN)
2. Offers no viable alternative/mitigating livelihood to logging.
No long-term markets for alternative crops/jobs.
No help making funding available to get loggers into alternative economic activities.
Getting international carbon producers investing in logging communities.
3. Making logging more expensive in Guyana:
Certification is way above our means.
Certification does not get us better prices or guaranteed markets.
Encouraging policy makers to demand more compliance to regulations which might be put into place to satisfy western markets.
4. Push genuine  loggers/want-to-be loggers, into unemployment; they to provide for their families:
Logging creates for about 26,000 persons in Guyana directly and indirectly.
Poor people with limited education earn an honest livelihood in logging.
The public sector cannot provide jobs for over 70% of employable Guyanese.
95% of non-indigenous loggers are working within the rules and regulation of the GFC, albeit under great strain.
We loggers cannot take on more rules and regulation. We have to live and maintain our families by hook or by crook.
I committed lots of illegalities in my early life. I guess many other loggers did. Please do not force us back from the refuge of logging to a life we have given up. I borrow the following points from a research done by a Guyanese logger. I think these are reasons why Guyanese loggers should be proud of their achievements:
A. Only natural resources sector in Guyana that currently does any value-adding with a range of approximately 2-30% of raw timber (logs) exportation against the forest utilisation over the last two decades.
B. Only natural resources sector in Guyana that exploits a renewable resource through natural regeneration regime.
C. Single most important sector that gives great credit to any Low Carbon Development Strategy or Green Economy Policy because of the quality level of SFM practices through strong regulations and compliances.  In natural regeneration, the greatest carbon emitters are agriculture and industries. SFM practices ensure that the canopy remains generally closed and deforestation/degradation is kept to a bare minimum. In Guyana the percentage of deforestation is less than 0.1 %; 99.9 % forests cover intact.
D. One of the heaviest natural resources to transport that requires costly infrastructure to be developed – logging has developed more roads, constructed to a good standard than any other sector; opening up of the hinterland access to more low carbon activities e.g. ecotourism and carbon assessments.
F. Approximately 70% of allocated state forest area is under long-term forest management practice requiring 25-60 years strategic planning, 3-5 years forest management plans (FMP) and annual operational plans (AOP). The remaining 30% are managed by GFC under established environmentalcontrols. There are about 500 plus forest operators to manage while there are about 15,000 plus known mining operators to manage.
G. Only natural resources sector in Guyana where approximately 70% of the allocated area has to undergo 100% enumeration of the natural resources followed by an approval process prior to any entry for harvesting. Enumeration of the standing visible resource allows for responsible forest management. Long term investment in a renewable natural resource coupled with the need to comply with the guidelines for SFM speak of a sector that offers stability, job security, strategic national planning and an earner for the national accounts etc.
H. The largest allocated natural resources sector with less than 2% impact on deforestation and degradation rate.
I. Only natural resources in Guyana with an active extraction Code of Practice since 1998 with several revisions and it has been recognized internationally e.g. ITTO, FAO. – New Code of Practice for Wood Processing maybe the first worldwide.
K. Only natural resources sector with a built-in traceability system (back to source) since 2000 on a national scale.
L. Direct employment of approximately 26,000 which impacts approximately 17% (130,000) of the population. Indirect employment includes officers of the Government, suppliers of spares, consumables, fuel, oil, lubricant, transportation, export handling, agents, services and so on.
M. Only natural resources sector where approximately 70% of the allocated area is monitored by resident Guyana Forestry Commission officers. The remaining 30% of allocated area is monitored by strategic forestry stations and mobile patrols.
N. The sector has the highest number of communities (approximately 73 groups with over 3,000 members) with access to the natural resources (approximately 480,000 hectares) for their livelihood needs through forestry practices. It is estimated that approximately 70% of the value derived from the resources are spent in the communities.
O. The sector probably has the highest level of monetary penalties imposed (since court is too expensive in terms of time and cost) for operational breaches.
P. The sector receives amongst the lowest across the board assistance or support from the Government despite being the biggest contributor to the LCDS with net zero benefit from LCDS funding.
To the Western World, we are working within the confines of the European Union Timber Regulation; the LACEY ACT; and we are now negotiating an EU-FLEGT-VPA which will cover sustainability.
Charles Thom

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