Gov't acting unilaterally on forest issues - FPA

Gov't acting unilaterally on forest issues - FPA

Saturday, October 6th 2007
Stabroek News
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56530391

The Forest Products Association (FPA) is charging the government with displaying a recent tendency to act unilaterally on forestry issues and reacting to attacks on the sector by imposing "wholly impractical restrictions and regulations." The FPA in a press release on Thursday stated that the forestry sector is being targeted in an "unfair and uninformed" attack. And the body said it is extremely disappointed that the government, in response to these attacks on the industry, "rather than consult with and recognise the realities of the industry, has reacted by resorting to the imposition of wholly impractical restrictions and regulations which will have the ultimate result of crippling the industry and hurting the country." Underscoring its preference to work in partnership with the government, the FPA expressed its concern about what it referred to as "the government's recent tendency to act unilaterally." "The government, for instance, has recently introduced in Parliament new forestry legislation which was first conceived in 1999, but has been substantially amended since then, yet, the industry has not been consulted since 2004," the release from Public Communications Consultants Ltd stated. The FPA noted that the forestry bill will, however, have far reaching consequences for the development of an industry which it described as "largely bereft of the financial incentives and the technical and human resources essential to modernise, develop and sustain the industry." The body also referred to the government's recent announcement of the appointment of a new Board to the Forestry Commission, and pointed out that the FPA for the first time in many years is unrepresented on the Board. The FPA also observed that the Minister of Agriculture and the Com-missioner of Forests recently called what they describe as a series of "consultations" on the introduction of new procedures and policies setting out wood processing standards which are to be imposed on the industry in 2008. In fact, the FPA contended, the "industry is being presented with a series of ultimatums." Meantime, the FPA has appointed a Technical Committee to examine these procedures and will be writing the Minister of Agriculture recommending that the "GFC consult with the FPA's Technical Committee prior to any implementation." The FPA said further that it will issue a statement disclosing the findings of its Technical Com-mittee. And the body noted that for sometime now there has been a series of very unfair, usually misinformed and generally misleading statements and letters in the media targeting the forestry industry and, in particular, singling out the major foreign investors in the industry for attack. According to the release, these attacks on the industry "are clearly orchestrated and appear to represent a single-minded agenda of persons whose ultimate intention is to close down the industry." The latest example of such statements, the release added, comes from the Guyana Human Rights Association that Guyana's forests are being "irresponsibly plundered". The FPA asserted that it is "acutely aware that unfounded statements like these can and will only result in doing enormous and irretrievable damage to an industry representing a capital investment commitment of G$160B and which, last year, contributed some G$360B to Guyana's Gross Domestic Product and is providing a livelihood to close to 100,000 persons." Sensational headlines The government and the local media, the FPA said, should be able to grasp the fact that so-called "green groups" in the industrialized countries which have destroyed their own forests and continue to refuse to prevent industrial pollution in their own countries, prefer to respond to the threat of global warming by demanding that countries like Guyana should stop the harvesting of its forests, whether environmentally sustainable or not. "It is these groups that are financing and are behind the critics here at home," the FPA charged. It then cited the case in which the Minister of Agriculture and the Commissioner of Forests recently announced an investigation into alleged corruption in the industry. "The result," according to the FPA, "was a spread of sensational headlines across the media undermining the industry, when in fact issues should be investigated fully first and wrongdoers, if any, be made to be responsible for the so-called 'breaches'." The FPA assured that it will support and work with the Guyana Forestry Commission on any investigation aimed at efficiently enforcing the regulations under which the industry is required to function. However, the body said it "considers it irresponsible and damaging to the industry to announce an investigation rather than first conducting the investigation and then punishing the defaulters, if any, to address the issues." The FPA emphasised that it does not condone wrongdoing and is ready to work with the government to eliminate it wherever it may exist. "All that we ask is that the government consult and work with us to address it, the FPA added. And giving what the FPA called the facts, rather than the fiction, about Guyana's forest industry, the release referred to a study of the industry by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) and which the FPA says has been largely ignored by the government, pointed to and underlined what it termed the following realities: 1. The forestry sector is grossly undercapitalized and is forced to function in an economy offering very high interest rates and no access to developmental capital. 2. Guyana's forests are highly diversified, costly to harvest, low yielding with extremely limited access to marketable species of hardwood spread over large areas of unproductive forests. 3. Attempts to add value through further processing without a realistic review of operational and market requirements are misguided. 4. There is inadequate support from the government and absolutely no incentive provided to convert the industry from primary product exports to downstream processing. Meanwhile, the FPA argued that Guyana's forest industry is amongst the most highly regulated in the world and has been subject to selective harvesting practices for many years now. But Guyana's mining industry by contrast, the FPA claimed, is virtually unregulated and until the recent minimal action taken by government in the Barama concession, miners have had unrestricted access to Guyana's major forest concessions with the right to clear cut the forests, damage beyond recognition the riverbanks, and "generally behave in a manner which demonstrates little respect for the environment." The release also observed that the Minister of Amerindian Affairs had recently announced that Amerindians are being subjected to poor labour practices in the forestry and mining industry. The FPA said it had written the Minister and met with the Commissioner proposing a meeting to address any evidence of this in order to correct it. "We are yet to be granted a meeting or provided with the evidence, but the industry is given a bad name which can only result in damaging the industry's international marketability," the FPA concluded. It also reiterated that the majority of its members are committed to responsible, environmentally sound and sustainable forestry practices, but sounded caution against what it called "all sorts of unfounded and undocumented statements and allegations being made about the industry which have no basis in fact or in truth." This week the FPA invited the media to fly over Guyana's major forest concessions and areas in which mining is taking place.