Govt. takes back forest lands granted under PPP/C - Area intended for conservation purposes

Govt. takes back forest lands granted under PPP/C – Area intended for conservation purposes

Mar 01, 2018 News

A swath of forest area that should have been kept for conservation purposes, but was somehow allocated, has been taken back by authorities and is to be part of the protected area system.
According to the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), in recent data released to the media, some 391,874 hectares had been granted to Simon and Shock Inc., a foreign investor.
That concession, granted sometime in 2007 by the then administration of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), was located in the southern part of Guyana, below what is known as the 4th Parallel. No forest area south of that line was supposed to be given out.
It was granted to Simon and Shock Inc. (SSI) to develop. However, very little was done.
Giving an update of the matter, the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) disclosed last week, that in the last reporting period, 2016, 391,874 hectares or 968,338 acres were allocated as forest concession to Simon and Shock Inc. That area was below the 4th Parallel.
“Following discussions with the company, this area was relinquished, thereby freeing up the entire state forest allocated below this line,” GFC said in a report circulated to the media.
The commission explained that following the national policy position for two million additional hectares to be allocated as a protected area, the freeing up of areas below the 4th Parallel, will allow for a broader range of options to be considered for allocation to this national commitment. “Areas below this line have high biodiversity and ecosystem value and are pristine areas of forests,” it was explained.
The freeing up of forest lands would have come amid debate on the management of the country’s commercial area left available. There were accusations that the previous administration doled out all of the commercially viable area, leaving little.
Simon and Shock, prior to 2011, had made a proposal for a US$18M investment which involved infrastructure construction and later transportation of lumber to a processing facility at Annai, Region Nine, where kiln-drying, furniture manufacturing and further processing would take place.
Meanwhile, GFC disclosed that last year, two State Forest Exploratory Permits (SFEPs) were issued – to Chinese-owned Rong-An Inc. and Variety Woods and Greenheart Limited.
These were converted to Timber Sales Agreement (TSAs) in the last quarter of 2017 and the companies have commenced commercial production.
“This will have an additional positive impact on production, export and revenue. Based on these considerations, the 2018 revenue is projected at $1.366B,” the commission said.
This year, a timber products exhibition is planned, where operators will display and showcase the various species that are comparable to imported lumber, especially pine lumber, and promote the use of timber as a construction material, especially targeted Lesser Used Species (LUS).
Meanwhile, with regards to what is available, this is what GFC had to say.
“The State Forest estate covers an area of 12.5 million hectares. A total of 4.3 million hectares or 35% of this area has been allocated as forest concessions. The remaining areas are unallocated State Forest. In 2017, several concessions have reverted to the state. These include from Barama Company Ltd (BCL), Interior Forest Industries (IFI), Jaling Forest Industries Ltd (JFIL), Forest Enterprise Ltd (FEL), Garner Forest Industries (GFI) and Simon & Shock Inc. (SSI).”

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Govt. takes back forest lands granted under PPP/C – Area intended for conservation purposes

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