Petition being organized against Forests Bill 2007 -critic sees legalization of concession trading

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56526947

Petition being organized against Forests Bill 2007
-critic sees legalization of concession trading
Stabroek News
Friday, August 17th 2007

A petition is being mobilized among concerned Guyanese in protest
against the recently tabled Forests Bill 2007 which is said to reject
oversight of Guyana's state forests and has few safeguards against a
bureaucracy captured by special interests.

The petition being circulated by forestry researcher and activist
Janette Bulkan states that it is necessary to ensure that "the
bureaucracy does not take to itself discretionary powers without public
oversight."

Parliament is now in its annual two-month recess after which the bill
is expected to be deliberated on.

The petition in its appeal to "our representatives in the National
Assembly" draws attention "to the unilateral replacement of the Draft
Forests Act 2004 with the Forests Bill 2007 without explanation and
justification for the deliberate removal of some, and insertion of new,
articles and clauses which, taken together, weaken the Draft Forests
Act 2004."

The petition is calling on the MPs after their deliberations to send
this Bill back "for informed stakeholder input so that all Guyanese
might be justifiably proud of the upright conduct and national vision
displayed by its parliamentarians in promulgating the first Forests Act
since Independence."

The petition argues that "there are over a dozen references in the
Draft Forests Act 2004 to the Board of Directors of the Guyana Forestry
Commission (GFC) and none in the current Bill. In its place, broad
discretionary powers are vested exclusively in the 'Commission'." The
petition notes further that the Forests Bill 2007 "transfers and
enlarges broad powers to the 'Commission' without criteria for their
use."

"Unlike the 2004 draft, there are few safeguards in the Forests Bill
2007 against a bureaucracy captured by special interests. This change,
a reflection of the exceptional profits to be made from expanded Asian
demand for raw materials especially in the booming economies of China
and India, deprives Guyana of the opportunities to secure for our
country a greater share in those profits and without detriment to our
long-terms productivity".

The petition argues that the safeguards entrenched in the Forests
(Amendment) (Exploratory Permits) Act 1997 against piratical logging
have been neutralized.

Further, the Commission is authorized to renew long-term large-scale
forest concessions irrespective of their non-compliance with the terms
of the concession award. The commission would also be empowered to
waive the security bond which provides the state with cover against
environmental damage and the non-payment of charges.

As presently constructed, Bulkan says the bill permits the granting of
a concession on claimed Amerindian land thereby effacing the
legislative safeguard earlier provided.

She also argued that Article 6 (1) in the bill among others could lead
to the legalization of the current illegal trading of forest
concessions.

"Given the present illegal trading of concessions, which has now
resulted in the concentration of the best stocked and the lion's share
of State forests under the control of a few companies, the Forests Act
should limit the transferability of concession. It does the opposite."

Bulkan pointed out that the process of revising the 1953 Forests Act
has seen several incarnations from the mid-1990s. She contended that
the final publicly-available draft Forests Act 2004 benefited from the
vision contained in the National Development Strategy 2000-2010 and
from broad stakeholder consultations unlike the present bill.