Forestry Commission probe of itself unacceptable - GHRA -suspension of James Singh urged

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Forestry Commission probe of itself unacceptable - GHRA
-suspension of James Singh urged
Stabroek News, Thursday, September 27th 2007

The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) says the announcement on
Tuesday by the Ministry of Agriculture of an internal probe by the
Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) into under-pricing and false
declarations of timber is an inadequate response to allegations of
irregularities taking place in the sector.

According to the human rights body in a press release yesterday, two
minimum conditions for the credibility of the investigation are the
temporary suspension of Forestry Commissioner James Singh and the
appointment of independent investigators.

In addition to under-pricing, the release said, the past decade has
seen a catalogue of dubious and illegal mismanagement, including
over-logging of prime species, 'land-lording' of concessions,
non-payment of revenues, labour exploitation of indigenous people,
reverse buy-outs disguising true ownership, preference for foreign over
Guyanese labour, and destruction of national and Amerindian forest
assets.

The human rights body said that Singh has presided over a key statutory
body over the period of years this catalogue of accusations has
accumulated, while the announced probe is not the result of internal
GFC zeal but external pressure from national and international agencies
and activists "outraged by the plundering of Guyana's forests."

According to the GHRA, Tuesday's announcement confirms this by
referring to the GFC unearthing suspicious findings when it started to
conduct checks on records for the past three months.

But this is not a recent problem, the human rights body stated. It said
that as long ago as 1994, sixty-one local and international signatories
including "virtually every major environmental network and agency on
the planet" wrote to the Guyana government and all donor agencies on
the occasion of the World Bank Advisory Group meeting in Guyana.

The GHRA quoted the statement as urging that: "The Government freeze
the handing out of logging concessions and institutes a Commission of
Inquiry into the performance of the industry. As well as reviewing the
effects on Amerindians, paying special attention to their land rights,
the Commission should make public the content and extent of all Timber
Sales Agreements and logging concessions, assess the conditions of the
labour force in forest operations and establish to what extent the
Forestry Commission is able to ensure effective forest management."

GHRA noted that the statement also quoted Stabroek News of October 29,
1993 to the effect that "the Agency clearly is unable to perform its
functions. . . it is largely unable to collect the fees it is due and
unable to enforce planning requirements and environmental safeguards."

"Such terms of reference for an independent Commission of Inquiry
remain even more valid today than when first formulated and should
replace the proposed investigation," the GHRA asserted.

Moreover, the human rights body argued, the recent dismissal of a
deputy commissioner of the GFC is a trivial response to the scale of
the problem.

The nation deserves adequate assurance that its ancient forests are
receiving the protection they require, GHRA said.

It observed too that the ministry's release referred to
under-declaration and pricing of logs, which is a short-term loss of
revenue to the nation, but it remained silent on the irrevocable damage
to the global environment this plundering represents.

The GFC is expected to provide the Minister of Agriculture with an
update on the status of the investigation by October 10.