Stabroek News, April 16, 2008
http://www.stabroeknews.com/?p
The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) is concerned that a few forestry
companies continue to be in breach of the GFC guidelines, especially
in relation to widely publicised procedures for harvesting and
extracting forest produce and one such company will be dealt with.
In a release yesterday, Commissioner of Forests James Singh said that
in April 2008, on the basis of GFC monitoring activities, it was
determined that one company has harvested logs from blocks that were
not approved for harvesting by the GFC for the year 2008. "The gravity
of this offence is compounded by the fact that this is a repeat of
breaches committed by the same company in 2007. The GFC will not
tolerate this blatant disregard re compliance with guidelines and
appropriate action will be taken against the company," Singh said.
The GFC also advised that several forestry companies had committed
breaches of procedure in 2007, and after lengthy discussions with the
GFC and the Minister of Agriculture, these companies had agreed in
principle to pay calculated compensations to the GFC. "However on
April 4, 2008, GFC received a lawyer's letter outlining one company's
claims that it was not in breach of GFC procedures. The GFC will take
appropriate actions against this company," Singh said.
He reminded holders of Timber Sales Agreements (TSAs) and Wood Cutting
Leases (WCL) that the final date for submission of 100 per cent
inventory information, regarding 100 hectare blocks to be harvested in
2008 is May 30, 2008.
"Concessionaires are further advised to ensure that their Annual
Operational Plan (AOP) for 2009 is submitted on or before November 30,
2008 with the accompanying 100 per cent inventory information on the
blocks proposed for harvesting in 2009," Singh said.
No comments:
Post a Comment