Rules for management of forest

Kaieteur News letter to Editor, 31 October 2007

Rules for management of forest
concessions not hidden
from public

Dear Editor,
An editorial appearing in one of the newspapers on October 25 suggested that
stipulations about the management of the [forest] concessions . . . have
been hidden from the public". No, sir, the rules are clearly laid out in the
Forests Act 1953 (Cap 67:01) and the associated Forest Regulations, plus the
licence conditions in the concession documents.
If the GFC report cited on 23 October is correct, Barama has been issued
with or has acquired handfuls of timber tags and has been using them
indiscriminately in the sub-let concessions over which it exercises forest
management control. This sub-letting, the "land-lording" by nominal Guyanese
concession holders, is illegal under Forest Regulations 1953, Article 12:-
"No transfer of any lease or timber sales agreement shall be made by any
forest officer without the prior approval of the President where such lease
or timber sales agreement grants exclusive rights to any person over an area
estimated to exceed three thousand acres or is for an unexpired period
exceeding three years".
Landlording is illegal under Condition 13 of Timber Sales Agreements: - "The
grantee shall not transfer, sublet, mortgage or otherwise dispose of any
interest arising under this agreement except in accordance with the Forest
Regulations, and any purported disposition made except in accordance with
such regulations shall be null and void."
Landlording can be permitted only with express Presidential authority (the
President being the Minister of Forestry, as opposed to the quotidian
control by the Minister for Forestry, who is usually also the Minister of
Agriculture).
Landlording is differentiated from "sprinting," which was a long-standing
practice by which concession holders would contract in labour for specific
tasks, but without in any way passing on managerial control. . "Sprinting"
is a way of keeping recurrent costs low but being able to respond to
specific orders for timber. Sprinting is useful to companies which do not
positively market Guyana 's wonderful timbers.
"Sprinting" in timber sales agreements is covered by Condition 14:- "The
grantee [that is, the holder of the TSA concession] shall inform the Grantor
[the Guyana Forestry Commission] in writing immediately upon engagement of
the names of the agents and contractors who are and the dates when they
cease, to carry out its operations in the area."
As the landlording was illegal, it follows that Barama's log harvesting in
these areas must have been illegal, and the GFC report cites the articles in
the forest law which were broken.
There is, at least on paper, an open and transparent process for applying
for a forest concession. Applicants should demonstrate technical competence
and financial sufficiency. If the concession holders are unable to work the
concessions in publicly owned forest, the GFC should have used the Article
11 provision for suspension or cancellation of wood cutting leases or timber
sales agreements in the Forest (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982.
It is illogical to have a transparent, open bidding process for acquisition
of forest concessions over publicly-owned forest and then for government to
permit private trading of those concession licences. Such private trading
deprives the nation's Consolidated Fund of revenue from the price premium
bid for forest resource access.
At least these stipulations are in public view. Whether they have been
correctly, consistently, impartially, objectively and equitably applied is
another matter.
Janette Bulkan