Akawani Village Council plans sustainable forestry

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Akawani Village Council plans sustainable forestry
Guyana Chronicle, 16 June 2007

OFFICIALS at yesterday’s press conference
MEMBERS of the Akawani Village Council who have ousted the Barama
Company from logging operations in their village are to launch out on
their own sustainable forestry operations.

The Toshao of the village Mr. David Wilson yesterday said the council
will seek to obtain funding from the Guyana Micro Projects Program
(GMPP) as a means of providing employment for villagers and uplifting
the quality of life in the community following the ouster.

The Amerindian community in Region One (Barima/Waini) signed a contract
in February 2006 with Interior Woods Products Incorporated(IWPI)
allowing Barama to log in the area.

They, however, terminated the contract on May 29 because they were not
seeing any tangible benefits from the arrangement and had become
convinced that they were being exploited.

They alleged that IWPI was logging the last remaining forest of the
Akawini village and in so doing was threatening their livelihood and
violating their rights as indigenous peoples.

Chairman of Barama, Girwar Lalaram had earlier been reported in another
section of the media as saying that some members of the community
wanted the company to return to the village.

He had said the Captain and other persons from Akawini had visited his
office lobbying for a direct arrangement with the company rather than
the sub-contract that Barama had with IWPI.

He added that this was the very proposal he put forward to the
community when he visited about two weeks ago and they rejected it.

Lalaram had also been quoted as saying Barama had invested some
US$500,000 in roads and infrastructural works in that area and had
already completed some 20 km of road at the cost of US$8,000 per km.

He had, however, added that Barama was cutting its losses and moving on
and that there was no way he would consider continuing the operations
in Akawini after the way his company was treated by the community.

At a press conference yesterday held by the Amerindian People’s
Association (APA), Wilson denied that the villagers want the company
back into the village.

He said that neither he nor anyone from the council had held any talks
with anyone in Barama Company about changing their minds and allowing
them back into the village.

Wilson stressed that the decision made by the District Council that
Barama must leave the village was final.

Others representing the APA at the press conference were Mr. David
James, Attorney–at-Law and Mr. Howard Cornelius, a Councillor of the
neighbouring village of Wakapao.

James said the contract which the Village Council of Akawini had signed
with IPWI had been hopelessly biased in favour of that company.

He said it was an agreement which had put the villagers at a terrible
disadvantage and had cost the community millions of dollars.

He said steps were being taken to ensure that the principle of Free
Prior Informed Consent is applied to any other such agreement with any
other Amerindian community.

He disclosed that the APA is seeking to educate its members so that
they can protect themselves from exploitation by individuals and/or
companies which seek to do business in their communities.