Barama Chairman bemoans
misinformation about company
Kaieteur News, 31 May 2007
The lack of investigative journalism has led to misinformation and
information being misdirected about Barama Company Limited, says
Chairman of the logging company, Girwar Lalaram.
Lalaram made the comment on Monday during a visit to the company's
Buckhall operation in the Essequibo River.
In an effort to become more transparent, the company sponsored a field
trip. Among those who visited the operations were critics and various
stakeholders as well as the media.
“Some people have ASI (Accreditation Services International) report to
Barama, when the ASI report is related to SGS (Surveillance for General
Society) and so there was total confusion at the press level because
there was no investigative journalism on this particular issue,”
Barama's Chairman said during a briefing at Buckhall.
He said that it must be recognised that the company is also being
scrutinised internationally.
“We have taken this bold initiative of bringing to the forestry
operations in Guyana, the highest form of forest management….the
rigours of that is by far greater than the code of practice that now
exists under the Guyana Forestry Commission,” he said.
The Chairman admitted that the company may have slipped after obtaining
the certificate.
According to Lalaram, instead of people encouraging Barama by saying
“hey, we want to know what happened, we want to see you back on track
as quickly as possible,” they instead, he said, criticised the company.
“We want Barama to be the model, because we are the biggest player in
this industry…if Barama fails I don't think that anyone else will take
this approach to bring the highest standards of forestry practices in
Guyana,” Lalaram added.
The Chairman said that the company will continue to conduct tours such
as the one on Monday so as to continue with ‘openness and transparency'
at the national and international levels because Barama has ‘nothing to
hide'.
The company came under scrutiny earlier this year when Accreditation
Services International (ASI), an international audit bureau, found
Barama and its auditor, Surveillance for General Society (SGS), lacking
at various levels following an audit last November.
As such the company's certification was suspended for three months.
The audit found that BCL has been deficient in a number of areas,
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.
Forest Planning Manager, Neil Chan told the media that the company has
begun many of the corrective measures so as to ensure re-certification.
He noted that although ASI's audit should not be taken as an audit done
for Barama, the company has noted the comments/observations and is
correcting the situation.
“FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) has ASI as (its) auditor. Barama has
SGS has (its) auditor, who is audited by the ASI.” Chan said.
He noted that SGS has not published a report and as such the report
that is being circulated is the ASI report.
“So you can have 101 ASI reports that speak about Barama...but
officially we have to respond to the SGS report,” Chan added.
One of the deficiencies that ASI spoke about in its report is that SGS
did not ensure that Barama had established appropriate conservation
zones and protection areas and implemented appropriate procedures to
protect these areas.
Speaking to the media about the High Conservation Value Forest, Chan
said, “In essence the entire forest in Guyana is considered High
Conservation Value Forest and in our area, what we have done, we have
brought in an expert consultant to do an assessment on what is to be
considered as conservation value forest areas within our concessions.”
He said that High Conservation does not mean that there should be no
activities in that particular area, but its management is what matters.
“We have defined certain critical areas, which we have addressed and we
have also mapped them out and this has been done to an extent where we
have gone way beyond our area,” Chan noted.
The Conversation Zones, he noted, are part of the operation areas.
“We do not have a well laid out plantation forest to work with…It's not
a perfect environment we work in…It is very difficult.”
He admitted that there are a few cases of breaches but the important
thing is that it is not systemic.
“When the auditors were here (in Guyana) they visited several of the
buffer zone areas,” Chan informed.
According to him, one of the areas visited has a slight deficiency.
At present, he said, monitoring in all the areas has improved so there
should not be any recurrence of deficiencies.
Another area, which the ASI reported on, was SGS's failure to ensure
those containers, of liquid and solid non-organic waste including fuel
and oil, be disposed of in an environmentally appropriate manner at
off-site locations.
The company has since taken measures to address this issue. Storage
facilities have been renovated and new systems have been put in place.
Accommodation for workers is another area that the company is
addressing.
SGS has since appealed some of the non-conformities that ASI stated in
its report.
Failure to demonstrate compliance with all the major non-conformities
within the specified period will result in a report to the FSC
Executive Director recommending disciplinary action against the
company.
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