Major deficiencies uncovered in Barama

Major deficiencies uncovered in Barama forest management
- auditor to appeal some findings
Sunday, January 28th 2007

An international audit agency has found Barama Company Ltd (BCL) and its auditor SGS-Qualifor deficient at varying levels following an audit late last year of BCL's forest operations which led to a three-month suspension of BCL's certification.

Accreditation Services International GmbH (ASI), which conducted a forest management audit at Barama for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), found nine major and seven minor nonconformities (areas in which Barama and its auditor failed to conform to accepted standards) for which it has requested corrective actions. It also made four observations in other areas, which do not require corrective action. SGS-Qualifor has since said that it does not agree with a number of findings in the report and plans to appeal them.

BCL was contacted for a response to the ASI report, but this newspaper was told that General Manager Girwar Lalaram was out of the country.

The audit found that BCL has been deficient on a number of fronts, including harvesting on Amerindian reservations, logging outside its concession, not maintaining basic health and safety requirements for workers, lack of evidence of sustainability in harvesting, failure to perform the relevant environmental impact assessments and unsafe disposal of environmentally hazardous waste.

ASI also said that according to the comments garnered from stakeholders, SGS had unclear criteria to select primary stakeholders. "Some representative stakeholders [including representatives of indigenous communities] were not properly consulted."

The stakeholders said SGS's procedures were not adequate and SGS did not follow appropriate stakeholder consultation process in line with the laws of Guyana.

According to ASI, BCL, which had been certified by the FSC, could not demonstrate compliance with FSC certification requirements at the time of the audit, which was conducted between November 20 and 25, 2006. "The lack of appropriate evaluation against the FSC certification requirements has resulted in systematic major nonconformities which had not been addressed," the report said.

The corrective actions recommended by the ASI team have varying deadlines: one month after the finalisation of the report; three months after finalization; and by the next SGS office surveillance audit, which is in six months. The report was finalised on January 4, 2007 and last updated on January 15.

Failure to demonstrate compliance with all the major nonconformities within the specified period will result in a report to the FSC Executive Director recommending disciplinary action, the report said.

According to the audit, SGS failed to ensure that containers, liquid and solid non-organic waste including fuel and oil would be disposed of in an environmentally appropriate manner at off-site locations.

The audit found too that the company did not have a management plan for the certified compartment 4 (378,596). "This lack of appropriate evaluation against FSC Principle 7 has resulted in a systematic nonconformity at principle level," the report said.

The report said areas outside BCL's compartments of forest under evaluation were not managed in the spirit of the FSC and major nonconformities were witnessed by the ASI team.

During the ASI surveillance audit, SGS did not adequately evaluate the company's compliance with the company's own procedures regarding illegal activities and FSC requirements.

There was evidence that local indigenous communities had no control over forest management on their land in the areas under direct control of the company outside compartments 4 and 5.

The report said this was because of an exclusive contract signed between the community and a company called IWPI. "Due to this exclusive contract some local people are not allowed to perform forest management operations on their own land and it is BCL that is currently harvesting on these indigenous lands. BCL has a harvesting contract with IWPI and the ASI audit team witnessed the fact that BCL machinery and BCL staff [are] performing harvesting operations in this Amerindian reservation," the report said.

According to ASI, BCL said there is nothing that it can do because of the contract, but the communities said they have not been paid for the last six months for timber that BCL harvested.

At the time of the ASI surveillance audit, the company was not in compliance with the FSC Principle 4 certification requirement, which covers basic health and safety for workers. "SGS has not adequately evaluated the company's compliance against FSC principle 4 and the FSC criterion 7.3. This lack of appropriate evaluation has resulted in systematic major non-conformities at principle level," the ASI report stated.

Further, the auditors found workers' compensation lacking in certain aspects with regard to International Labour Organisation (ILO) rules. Adequate access to medical facilities and personal protective gear are also lacking and not in accordance with the ILO. ASI said these issues have a six-month deadline for compliance-until the next SGS audit.

There was no evidence that the rate of harvesting of forest products was not going to exceed levels which can be permanently sustained, the report said. It said the company was found to be failing in performing appropriate environmental impact assessments prior to performing activities with a very high and significant impact. The company has been given three months by which to correct this nonconformity.

The report said SGS did not ensure that BCL had established appropriate conservation zones and protection areas and implemented appropriate procedures to protect these areas. It also found that SGS didn't ensure that BCL had implemented written guidelines to control erosion, road construction and other mechanical disturbances and to protect water resources.

ASI is an independent accreditation body, developed by the FSC and established as a legal entity in Bonn, Germany, that delivers accreditation and other relevant services to the FSC and other certification schemes worldwide.

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