Extracted From :
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/guyana-and-wider-world-part-5.html
Guyana and the wider world (Part 5)
By Janette Bulkan
Stabroek News
Sunday, March 4th 2007
Today's column continues the discussion of the relation of interior/forestry roads to development within the context of the third cause singled out by the PRSP as contributory to endemic poverty: the absence of non-complementing growth-oriented infrastructure (PRSP 2001, p. 7). This analysis is undertaken in the context of the question: Why is there persistent poverty in the interior alongside the parcelling out of Guyana's best endowed forests in large-scale forestry concessions?
In November 2006, the General Secretary of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) addressed the issue of the blocking of timber roads to free passage. "Enquiries, Shields told the miners, revealed there was no such thing as a private road. No one can stop
another from using a road. However there is a road protocol, which says that if one is maintaining a road that person would have some authority but blocking of roads with trucks 'must be made a thing of the past'"(Stabroek News, November 11, 2006). Some logging companies charge a toll for the right of passage on a road through their concession; for
example, Guyana Sawmills Limited, charges between G$5,000 and G$10,000 to vehicles on the Itaballi Trail. Permissions are also given in the Public Lands (Private Roads) Act Cap 62:03 - Article 3 (1) permission to construct; Art 3 (2) possible public compensation for that
construction/maintenance; Art 5(1) power to levy a toll set by the minister; Art 6, grantee of a permission deemed to be owner and hence can control vehicular but not pedestrian access.
Section 6 of the act addresses the issue of trespass on roads and provides that the grantee of a permission under the act is deemed to be the owner of the land occupied by the road only for the purposes of any law dealing with wilful trespass on lands. Thus there is no 'ownership'
in an absolute sense but only for the limited purpose of wilful trespass which has a special meaning in law. The grantee of the permission is only deemed to be the owner if someone wilfully trespasses on the said land. Wilful trespass in this sense means activities such as entering and cutting or destroying any wood, or by digging or carrying away, etc. without the permission of the owner… basically any entering on the land by anyone with the intent to injure or destroy. It would seem therefore that if wilful trespass cannot be proven, then no one can claim 'ownership' or to be deemed an owner. It would seem therefore that once passage is innocent and the contrary is not proved, then the grantee cannot block the road if the toll is paid
(in relation to vehicles).
In Region 1, small-scale Guyanese loggers and millers express regret at the failure to link roads built by private concessionaires and public roads. In Region 10, large-scale concessionaires have had public roads closed indefinitely and caused fines to be levied against small-scale loggers who have tried to use those public roads to access their concessions. It is unclear to the loggers that the regulatory agency has any power under law to close public roads or to impose penalties.
Also in Region 10, it is unclear which government agency has approved a road network now being built through logging concessions from the Corentyne River to the Berbice River.
Another telling indicator, related by any number of Guyanese drivers in the interior, is the hooliganism displayed by Asian truck drivers towards other road users. Their unspoken attitude is: 'We built this road; you get off'; 'My truck is larger than your puny vehicle, look out.'
The absence of effective road regulation arguably hurts local communities much more than peripatetic miners. A significant number of households in the Upper Pomeroon River (from Jacklow to Karawab) depend on harvesting or processing nibbi and kufa, tree-growing vines used in manufacture of 'cane' furniture. Yet local people are prevented from travelling along timber roads in order to carry out their traditional harvesting. The GFC code of practice for timber harvesting (second edition, November 2002, section 2.2 forest use zoning, page 7) says
that "Consultation with local stakeholders during the planning process is required to identify whether and where certain tree species are in demand for their use as NTFP-producers (non-timber forest products). Species to consider are… Similarly, consultation should take place in
relation to harvesting of Kufa and Nibi. The Code of Practice for Kufa and Nibi Harvesting [a separate GFC document] sets standards on the felling of host trees and sharing of information on the planned coupe six months in advance to allow harvesting of these NTFPs before logging." The expatriate forest workers destroy all the nibi and kufa in their path while Pomeroon nibi and kufa harvesters have had to re-locate to less productive forests along the Linden to Kurupukari Road.
I shall end with a quotation from the NDS which is still applicable: "Although the RAD has the responsibility for road maintenance and rehabilitation… it is unable to discharge this mandate due to institutional incapacity. One way to overcome this disadvantage is to work closely with other institutions …In the interior and hinterland areas, it could work with the GGMC, GFC, PFA, GGDMA, and Amerindian councils to achieve the same objectives. Collaborating with other institutions should be a policy consideration for the RAD in its current and future road planning and development programmes" (NDS, chapter 38).
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Precision Woodworking Guyana
Extracted From:
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/precision-woodworking-guyana.html
A case study
Precision Woodworking of Guyana has manufactured garden furniture for John Lewis for more than 9 years and was one of the first suppliers to be audited against our policy.
By visiting Guyana we were able to understand local sourcing practices, and observe the benefits of sourcing from forests in transition to certification.
Although there are currently no FSC-certified forests in Guyana, the programme undertaken by Precision has improved forest management practices and has enabled Precision to trace timber origin back to stump. Through our continued support we hope that it is only a matter of time before Precision manufactures the first FSC-certified garden furniture in Guyana.
Link
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/precision-woodworking-guyana.html
A case studyPrecision Woodworking of Guyana has manufactured garden furniture for John Lewis for more than 9 years and was one of the first suppliers to be audited against our policy.
By visiting Guyana we were able to understand local sourcing practices, and observe the benefits of sourcing from forests in transition to certification.
Although there are currently no FSC-certified forests in Guyana, the programme undertaken by Precision has improved forest management practices and has enabled Precision to trace timber origin back to stump. Through our continued support we hope that it is only a matter of time before Precision manufactures the first FSC-certified garden furniture in Guyana.
Link
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Major traffickers untouched
Extracted from:
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/major-traffickers-untouched.html
Major traffickers here untouched -US-trading of drugs for weapons seen
Stabroek News
Friday, March 2nd 2007
Charging that drug trafficking and money laundering were pumping billions into the local construction sector, the US government yesterday again blasted the government here for not succeeding against major traffickers and warned that in some cases drugs were being traded for weapons.
The US also chided the administration for introducing no new drug policy initiative last year and also its failure to implement the ambitious 2005-2009 National Drug Strategy Master Plan that was launched in June 2005.
In the annual State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Washington said that Guyana is neither an important regional nor an offshore financial centre, nor does it have any free trade zones. However, the scale of money laundering is thought to be large relative to the size of the economy, with some experts estimating that the informal economy is 40 to 60 percent of the size of the formal sector. The US Government said that money laundering has been linked to
trafficking in drugs, firearms and persons, as well as to corruption and fraud. It noted that drug trafficking and money laundering appear to be benefiting the Guyanese economy, particularly the construction sector. "Investigating and prosecuting money laundering cases is not a priority for law enforcement. The Government of Guyana (GOG) made no arrests or prosecutions for money laundering in 2006 due to a lack of adequate legislation and resources," the report stated. The US
government also said in the report which was released yesterday that that the country's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) remains handicapped by the lack of effective legislation to deal with money laundering, such as the absence of regulations to allow for seizing assets.
This year's report reiterated that Guyana is a trans-shipment point for cocaine destined for North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. It noted that in 2006, domestic seizures of cocaine were insignificant, adding that the government's inability to control its borders, a lack of law enforcement presence, and a lack of aircraft and patrol boats allow traffickers to move drug shipments via sea, river, and air with little resistance. The report noted that the Guyana Government is yet to implement the substantive initiatives of its National Drug Strategy Master Plan. The $600M plan was launched in June 2005 and up to now government has not appointed a coordinator neither has a secretariat been set up. Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee told Stabroek News in a recent interview that he was looking at appointing a coordinator by the end of the second quarter of this year. He did admit that some key components of the plan are yet to be implemented, but pointed out that there were some initiatives taken by the administration. The drug plan had made it clear that one of the first things to be done in the implementation of the plan was for a coordinator and a secretariat to be in place.
The US Government said that Guyana is a party to the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (the 1988 UN Drug Convention) but still needs to pass and implement additional legislation to meet its obligations under the convention.
Noting that Guyana is a trans-shipment country for cocaine, the report said that this was not reflected in domestic seizures of the drugs. According to the US there has been no large domestic seizure since a 1998 joint Guyanese/U.S. operation confiscated 3,154 kilograms (kgs) of cocaine from a ship docked in Georgetown.
Several shipments of cocaine originating from Guyana were intercepted in the US, Canada, the UK and Barbados during last year, but officials here have failed to make any significant drug bust, only intercepting persons with small amounts at the airport.
The report noted that Guyana's vast expanse of unpopulated forest offers cover for drug traffickers. Timber concessions in the remote interior may also allow drug traffickers to establish autonomous outposts beyond the reach of Guyanese law enforcement.
Government had cleared the way for a logging concession to now drug-accused businessman Roger Khan, but after the US named him in its drug report last year the government terminated the arrangement. The US Government said that in response to the controversy surrounding the permit, the government announced it would propose legislation requiring stronger background checks on investors applying for timber
concessions. The legislation has not yet been tabled in the National Assembly, the report added.
Weak judiciary
Additionally, the US Government said that Guyana's counter-narcotics efforts are undermined by the lack of adequate resources for law enforcement, poor coordination among law enforcement agencies, and a weak judicial system. It noted that the Guyanese media regularly report murders, kidnappings, and other violent crimes commonly believed to be linked with narcotics trafficking. According to the report Guyana produces cannabis, but not coca leaf or cocaine and the country is not
known to produce, trade, or transit precursor chemicals on a large scale.
In relation to the country's accomplishments last year, the US Government said that law enforcement agencies seized less than 60 kilogrammes of cocaine with no publicly reported seizures in excess of 10 kgs. "This represents a minuscule portion of the cocaine that the US believes transits Guyana," the report added.
The report noted that last year businessman Roger Khan was indicted by a federal court in New York for conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States.
Corrupt cops
Moreover, the report noted that Guyana's counter-narcotics effort suffers from a lack of adequate law enforcement resources, poor inter-agency coordination, and widespread corruption. It said that several agencies share responsibility for counter-narcotics activities: the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) is tasked with conducting enforcement activities mainly at ports of entry; the Guyana Police
Force (GPF) Narcotics Branch is the principal element in the police responsible for enforcement of drug laws domestically; and the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard (GDFCG) has the lead for maritime counter-narcotics operations. "There is little productive interaction or intelligence sharing among these organizations, the Joint
Intelligence Coordination Center (JICC) is not currently operational," the US report noted.
It added that last year the Police Narcotics Branch and CANU arrested dozens of drug couriers at Guyana's international airport en route to the Caribbean, North America, and Europe. However, the arrests were limited to individuals with small amounts of marijuana, crack cocaine or powder cocaine, usually on charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking. "Authorities have not successfully acted against major
traffickers and their organizations," the report declared, adding that the GDFCG conducts patrols with the interceptor boat donated by the US in 2005, but has not yet interdicted any narcotics shipments. It noted that while CANU is responsible for patrolling Guyana's ports, it has only one team of six officers available to secure all five main transit points. CANU has no officers patrolling the numerous land entry points on the Venezuela, Brazil, and Suriname borders.
The drug report said that there is no evidence that the Government or senior government officials encourage or facilitate the illicit production, processing, shipment or distribution of narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions. It said that Guyana is a party to the Inter-American Conven-tion Against Corruption (IACAC), but has yet to fully implement its provisions, such as seizure of property obtained through corruption. The report said that news media routinely report on instances of corruption reaching to high levels of government that go uninvestigated and unpunished, but pointed out that Guyana was not a party to the UN Convention against Corruption.
Transit
According to US law enforcement authorities, Guyanese narcotics traffickers regularly move shipments of cocaine through the country.Authorities noted that in some deals Guyanese traffickers swap weapons for drugs. The report said that cocaine flows through Guyana's remote, uncontrolled borders and coastline, adding that light aircraft land at numerous isolated airstrips or make airdrops where operatives on the ground retrieve the drugs. Smugglers use small boats and freighters to enter Guyana's many remote but navigable rivers and smugglers also take direct routes, such as driving or boating across the uncontrolled borders with Brazil, Suriname, and Venezuela.
The report mentioned that inside the country, narcotics are transported to George-town by road, water, or air and then sent on to the Caribbean, North America, or Europe via commercial air carriers or cargo ships. "Go-fast" boats may also carry cocaine from Guyana's rivers to mother-ships in the Atlantic. It said authorities have arrested drug mules attempting to smuggle small amounts of cocaine on
virtually every northbound route out of the international airport.
Additionally, the report said drug traffickers also use cargo ships to export narcotics from Guyana, either directly to North America and Europe, or through intermediate Caribbean ports.
The report pointed out that in July 2006, Spanish police broke up a drug-smuggling ring that used yachts hired out for family holidays to import more than 800 kgs of cocaine into Britain and Spain. Authorities said the drugs were loaded off Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname and hidden below the decks while paying passengers took cruises. Drug traffickers have also used virtually every commodity that Guyana
exports as a cover for shipping cocaine out of the country, the report stated.
The report noted that marijuana is sold and consumed openly in Guyana,despite frequent arrests for possessing small amounts of cannabis. It said CANU and a study reported in the 2005-2009 drug master plan both note that consumption of cocaine powder, crack cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin has been on the rise. The report said Guyana's ability to deal with drug abusers is limited by a lack of financial resources to support rehabilitation programmes, noting that the country only has two
facilities that treat substance abuse - the Salvation Army and the Phoenix Recovery Centre. It added that both of these facilities are "men only" and that there are no treatment facilities for women in Guyana, neither are there adequate programmes to deal with substance abuse in the prisons.
U.S. Initiatives
The report stated that U.S. policy focuses on cooperating with Guyana's law enforcement agencies and promoting good governance. It said U.S.-funded training and technical support are key components of this strategy, noting that last year the US government continued to encourage Guyanese participation in bilateral and multilateral counter-narcotics initiatives. According to the report the U.S. Agency
for International Development (USAID) is funding projects to improve governance in Guyana, which includes parliamentary and judicial reform. Bilaterally, the report said that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) works with Guyana's government and law enforcement agencies to develop initiatives that will enhance their counter-narcotics activities. It noted that the Guyana Government routinely grants diplomatic credentials to DEA officers who cover Guyana from the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad.
Looking ahead, the US Government said that Guyana's lack of resources significantly hampers its ability to mount an effective counter-narcotics campaign. It said the government had to implement the substantive initiatives of its National Drug Strategy Master Plan for 2005-2009.
"The U.S. will channel future assistance to initiatives that demonstrate success in interdicting drug flows and prosecuting drug traffickers," Washington said adding that, legislation to give the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) additional authorities and provide regulations allowing for asset seizure and forfeiture needs to be passed.
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/major-traffickers-untouched.html
Major traffickers here untouched -US-trading of drugs for weapons seen
Stabroek News
Friday, March 2nd 2007
Charging that drug trafficking and money laundering were pumping billions into the local construction sector, the US government yesterday again blasted the government here for not succeeding against major traffickers and warned that in some cases drugs were being traded for weapons.
The US also chided the administration for introducing no new drug policy initiative last year and also its failure to implement the ambitious 2005-2009 National Drug Strategy Master Plan that was launched in June 2005.
In the annual State Department International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Washington said that Guyana is neither an important regional nor an offshore financial centre, nor does it have any free trade zones. However, the scale of money laundering is thought to be large relative to the size of the economy, with some experts estimating that the informal economy is 40 to 60 percent of the size of the formal sector. The US Government said that money laundering has been linked to
trafficking in drugs, firearms and persons, as well as to corruption and fraud. It noted that drug trafficking and money laundering appear to be benefiting the Guyanese economy, particularly the construction sector. "Investigating and prosecuting money laundering cases is not a priority for law enforcement. The Government of Guyana (GOG) made no arrests or prosecutions for money laundering in 2006 due to a lack of adequate legislation and resources," the report stated. The US
government also said in the report which was released yesterday that that the country's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) remains handicapped by the lack of effective legislation to deal with money laundering, such as the absence of regulations to allow for seizing assets.
This year's report reiterated that Guyana is a trans-shipment point for cocaine destined for North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. It noted that in 2006, domestic seizures of cocaine were insignificant, adding that the government's inability to control its borders, a lack of law enforcement presence, and a lack of aircraft and patrol boats allow traffickers to move drug shipments via sea, river, and air with little resistance. The report noted that the Guyana Government is yet to implement the substantive initiatives of its National Drug Strategy Master Plan. The $600M plan was launched in June 2005 and up to now government has not appointed a coordinator neither has a secretariat been set up. Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee told Stabroek News in a recent interview that he was looking at appointing a coordinator by the end of the second quarter of this year. He did admit that some key components of the plan are yet to be implemented, but pointed out that there were some initiatives taken by the administration. The drug plan had made it clear that one of the first things to be done in the implementation of the plan was for a coordinator and a secretariat to be in place.
The US Government said that Guyana is a party to the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (the 1988 UN Drug Convention) but still needs to pass and implement additional legislation to meet its obligations under the convention.
Noting that Guyana is a trans-shipment country for cocaine, the report said that this was not reflected in domestic seizures of the drugs. According to the US there has been no large domestic seizure since a 1998 joint Guyanese/U.S. operation confiscated 3,154 kilograms (kgs) of cocaine from a ship docked in Georgetown.
Several shipments of cocaine originating from Guyana were intercepted in the US, Canada, the UK and Barbados during last year, but officials here have failed to make any significant drug bust, only intercepting persons with small amounts at the airport.
The report noted that Guyana's vast expanse of unpopulated forest offers cover for drug traffickers. Timber concessions in the remote interior may also allow drug traffickers to establish autonomous outposts beyond the reach of Guyanese law enforcement.
Government had cleared the way for a logging concession to now drug-accused businessman Roger Khan, but after the US named him in its drug report last year the government terminated the arrangement. The US Government said that in response to the controversy surrounding the permit, the government announced it would propose legislation requiring stronger background checks on investors applying for timber
concessions. The legislation has not yet been tabled in the National Assembly, the report added.
Weak judiciary
Additionally, the US Government said that Guyana's counter-narcotics efforts are undermined by the lack of adequate resources for law enforcement, poor coordination among law enforcement agencies, and a weak judicial system. It noted that the Guyanese media regularly report murders, kidnappings, and other violent crimes commonly believed to be linked with narcotics trafficking. According to the report Guyana produces cannabis, but not coca leaf or cocaine and the country is not
known to produce, trade, or transit precursor chemicals on a large scale.
In relation to the country's accomplishments last year, the US Government said that law enforcement agencies seized less than 60 kilogrammes of cocaine with no publicly reported seizures in excess of 10 kgs. "This represents a minuscule portion of the cocaine that the US believes transits Guyana," the report added.
The report noted that last year businessman Roger Khan was indicted by a federal court in New York for conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States.
Corrupt cops
Moreover, the report noted that Guyana's counter-narcotics effort suffers from a lack of adequate law enforcement resources, poor inter-agency coordination, and widespread corruption. It said that several agencies share responsibility for counter-narcotics activities: the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) is tasked with conducting enforcement activities mainly at ports of entry; the Guyana Police
Force (GPF) Narcotics Branch is the principal element in the police responsible for enforcement of drug laws domestically; and the Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard (GDFCG) has the lead for maritime counter-narcotics operations. "There is little productive interaction or intelligence sharing among these organizations, the Joint
Intelligence Coordination Center (JICC) is not currently operational," the US report noted.
It added that last year the Police Narcotics Branch and CANU arrested dozens of drug couriers at Guyana's international airport en route to the Caribbean, North America, and Europe. However, the arrests were limited to individuals with small amounts of marijuana, crack cocaine or powder cocaine, usually on charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking. "Authorities have not successfully acted against major
traffickers and their organizations," the report declared, adding that the GDFCG conducts patrols with the interceptor boat donated by the US in 2005, but has not yet interdicted any narcotics shipments. It noted that while CANU is responsible for patrolling Guyana's ports, it has only one team of six officers available to secure all five main transit points. CANU has no officers patrolling the numerous land entry points on the Venezuela, Brazil, and Suriname borders.
The drug report said that there is no evidence that the Government or senior government officials encourage or facilitate the illicit production, processing, shipment or distribution of narcotic or psychotropic drugs or other controlled substances, or the laundering of proceeds from illegal drug transactions. It said that Guyana is a party to the Inter-American Conven-tion Against Corruption (IACAC), but has yet to fully implement its provisions, such as seizure of property obtained through corruption. The report said that news media routinely report on instances of corruption reaching to high levels of government that go uninvestigated and unpunished, but pointed out that Guyana was not a party to the UN Convention against Corruption.
Transit
According to US law enforcement authorities, Guyanese narcotics traffickers regularly move shipments of cocaine through the country.Authorities noted that in some deals Guyanese traffickers swap weapons for drugs. The report said that cocaine flows through Guyana's remote, uncontrolled borders and coastline, adding that light aircraft land at numerous isolated airstrips or make airdrops where operatives on the ground retrieve the drugs. Smugglers use small boats and freighters to enter Guyana's many remote but navigable rivers and smugglers also take direct routes, such as driving or boating across the uncontrolled borders with Brazil, Suriname, and Venezuela.
The report mentioned that inside the country, narcotics are transported to George-town by road, water, or air and then sent on to the Caribbean, North America, or Europe via commercial air carriers or cargo ships. "Go-fast" boats may also carry cocaine from Guyana's rivers to mother-ships in the Atlantic. It said authorities have arrested drug mules attempting to smuggle small amounts of cocaine on
virtually every northbound route out of the international airport.
Additionally, the report said drug traffickers also use cargo ships to export narcotics from Guyana, either directly to North America and Europe, or through intermediate Caribbean ports.
The report pointed out that in July 2006, Spanish police broke up a drug-smuggling ring that used yachts hired out for family holidays to import more than 800 kgs of cocaine into Britain and Spain. Authorities said the drugs were loaded off Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname and hidden below the decks while paying passengers took cruises. Drug traffickers have also used virtually every commodity that Guyana
exports as a cover for shipping cocaine out of the country, the report stated.
The report noted that marijuana is sold and consumed openly in Guyana,despite frequent arrests for possessing small amounts of cannabis. It said CANU and a study reported in the 2005-2009 drug master plan both note that consumption of cocaine powder, crack cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin has been on the rise. The report said Guyana's ability to deal with drug abusers is limited by a lack of financial resources to support rehabilitation programmes, noting that the country only has two
facilities that treat substance abuse - the Salvation Army and the Phoenix Recovery Centre. It added that both of these facilities are "men only" and that there are no treatment facilities for women in Guyana, neither are there adequate programmes to deal with substance abuse in the prisons.
U.S. Initiatives
The report stated that U.S. policy focuses on cooperating with Guyana's law enforcement agencies and promoting good governance. It said U.S.-funded training and technical support are key components of this strategy, noting that last year the US government continued to encourage Guyanese participation in bilateral and multilateral counter-narcotics initiatives. According to the report the U.S. Agency
for International Development (USAID) is funding projects to improve governance in Guyana, which includes parliamentary and judicial reform. Bilaterally, the report said that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) works with Guyana's government and law enforcement agencies to develop initiatives that will enhance their counter-narcotics activities. It noted that the Guyana Government routinely grants diplomatic credentials to DEA officers who cover Guyana from the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad.
Looking ahead, the US Government said that Guyana's lack of resources significantly hampers its ability to mount an effective counter-narcotics campaign. It said the government had to implement the substantive initiatives of its National Drug Strategy Master Plan for 2005-2009.
"The U.S. will channel future assistance to initiatives that demonstrate success in interdicting drug flows and prosecuting drug traffickers," Washington said adding that, legislation to give the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) additional authorities and provide regulations allowing for asset seizure and forfeiture needs to be passed.
Guyana well positioned to market wood products
Extracted From:
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/guyana-well-positioned-to-market-wood.html
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/guyana-well-positioned-to-market-wood.html
Guyana well positioned to market wood products
Guyana well-positioned to capitalise on strong regional and international markets for processed wood productsCut in log exports makes economic sense
Stabroek News
Friday, March 2nd 2007
Adding value: Furniture produced by Precision Woodworking for export.
The global demand for processed timber products is at a peak and Guyana is well-positioned to capitalise on that market according to a paper produced in February by the Guyana Forestry Commission.
The GFC paper names China, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands and Vietnam as being among countries that have "a very high demand for sawn and tropical wood products which are similar to Guyana's species."
The GFC paper says that Guyana's share of the international market for processed wood products continues to be small despite current attractive prices. The paper also indicates that the local forestry products sector has been unable to make a significant impact on the regional market.
Of the more than US$2b worth of tropical wood products imported by the United States in 2005 the total value of Guyana's exports to that country was US$9,044,000 or 0.43 per cent of market share while of the US$882,300,000 worth of similar products imported by the United Kingdom during the same year the value of Guyana's share of that market was a mere US$6,656,971 or 0.75 per cent of total UK wood product imports. According to the figures published by the GFC the value of Guyana's
share of the US$1.4b Chinese wood product imports reached US$2m or 0.14 per cent while in the case of Vietnam Guyana exported a total of US$40,000 out of a total Vietnamese wood products imports of US$303m in 2005.
The GFC paper paints an equally disappointing picture of local processed wood products exports to Caricom countries with exports to Barbados totalling US$6,825,000 - 14 per cent of market share - out of total Barbadian imports of US$49,299,207 in 2005. The value of wood products exports to Grenada in 2005 reached US$1,763,165 out of a total Grenadian imports of US$18,385,344. In the cases of other Caricom territories Guyana's market share of wood products imports by those
countries - Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Antigua ranged from 1 per cent to 4 per cent.
The potential economic returns from processed wood products have served to intensify the local lobby for reduced log exports. The GFC paper says that the economic returns of forest added-value sector to the economy are significant compared with the export of unprocessed logs. Additionally, according to the paper, the manufacturing sector has contributed significantly to employment, technology transfer and social services and through technological advances in value-added
,manufacturing, has been able to "successfully penetrate quality sensitive, environmentally conscious markets."
Local loggers have refuted claims made by manufacturers that they have been unable to secure adequate supplies of raw material. The loggers point to recent advertisements in the local media for supplies of timber to which the Forest Producers Association (FPA) say there have been "very few responses." An FPA source told Stabroek Business that local manufacturers are not prepared to pay the prices that can be secured on the international market.
Statistics published by the GFC in its February paper indicate that increasing volumes of local timber and plywood have been exported over the past three years.
The GFC says that the "huge unsatisfied export market" for timber products coupled with prevailing high prices justify a reduction in log exports and greater emphasis on the development of the sector through value added production.
Official concern over increasing Guyana's share of the international market for processed timber and timber products has led to sharp differences between the GFC and local log exporters with the GFC insisting that current market conditions make a compelling case for value added production in the forestry sector.
Guyana is an island surrounded by land
Extracted Form: http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/guyana-is-island-surrounded-by-land.html
A different vision of development
Friday, March 2nd 2007
"Guyana is an island surrounded by land". Recent public references to the development of Guyana remind one of this statement. The prospect of large casino hotels being built near and in Georgetown has excited many Guyanese, not least President Jagdeo.
The recent erection of many large buildings in the city and along the Coast by private persons is a phenomenon much discussed among Guyanese, and clearly there are more to come.
Whatever its source of investment, contrast this coastal building development with the interior of Guyana. Compare Bon Fin with Lethem, for instance.
Or, to give another example, compare President Jagdeo's statement at the opening of Buddy's International hotel last week with his response at a media briefing in September last year concerning the prospect of paving the road from Linden to Lethem to link up with the new Takutu bridge on the border of Guyana and Brazil.
At the opening of the new international hotel he is reported as saying, in praising the enterprise, determination and vision of its owner:-
"Over the past two years I have come to realize what I have always suspected, that in our country we have two generations of people, and these people do not get classified into one generation or the other based on their age - that has nothing to do with the chronology of life, but it has to do with attitudes." ……. "There is a generation which has buzz words like 'don't, cannot, should not, why should we'...and the other generation speaks about 'we must, we have to, we must try, we have to find a way', and if we are going to develop, we need to move more persons into the latter generation because for a very long time, the 'don't do' generation has stifled this country and they have made us feel inferior and they find everything about ourselves bad and anything foreign superior," the President said.
He stressed that this attitude "must change" and that Buddy's hotel is a "contribution to that positive change."
In September 2006, when asked at a media briefing about plans for paving the Lethem to Linden road and the construction of a bridge over the Kurupukari, he had this to say, as reported in Stabroek News of September 2006:-
"Asked at a media briefing about plans for paving the road from Lethem to Linden and the construction of a bridge over the Essequibo River at the Kurupukari Crossing, Jagdeo told the media on Tuesday that one could not spend millions of dollars on infrastructure when the rate of return per year is very minimal.
"You can't spend US$200 million on paving a road that earns you US$500,000 a year. Normally the rate of return should be about 10% so you have to earn about US$20 million a year and that is at the low end to justify that if government is financing it," he said.
While the government might be looking at an annual 10% rate of return on the investment, he said, if the private sector were to finance the paving of the road they would be looking at an annual rate of return close to 25%.
He said that when he looks at the traffic flow on that road he prefers "to keep my money in the bank." However, he said, if the development of the road could be linked to bigger projects such as exporting or bringing soya products or goods from the free trade area of Manaus or it is linked to the plans for the development of Northern Brazil then it becomes feasible.
He said there was no immediate plan to build a bridge at the Kurupukari Crossing."
The Government has been the recipient of approaches from Brazilian investors, encouraged by Mr. Paul Hardy who is an ardent advocate of a paved road through the interior of Guyana to Brazil to connect to the excellent Brazilian highway system from Bon Fin on the Takutu through Boa Vista to Manaus on the Amazon/Rio Negro. This is what Mr. Hardy had to say to Stabroek News in April last year:-
"The business community in Brazil is willing to pave the road from Lethem to connect to Georgetown and build the bridges along the route including one at Kurupukari across the Essequibo River in exchange for timber and mining concessions, GAP Leader Paul Hardy said.
In a recent interview, Hardy told Stabroek News that the Brazilian private sector had indicated its willingness during a recent meeting in Boa Vista. The businessmen were now working on a plan, which they hoped to present to the Guyana government, he said ….. Let us use it to that advantage and we don't depend on government's funding. Because we are a HIPC nation we cannot accept a loan. The groups are willing to come to Guyana if proper lobbying is done. We promise to lobby our government for that project to come through.
"Where would the bridge lead to once you drive off at Lethem?" he asked. "Once you get across the Takutu Bridge in Brazil you drive right through Brazil on good paved highways… [at] the Guyana end you drive off the bridge onto some rough laterite road. There is no infrastructure in place at Lethem."
Hardy said the construction of the bridge has to be an integrated project. Brazilian critics of the southern link, he said, were saying that Guyanese cannot even build a proper road and they want a bridge. "What's the use of building a bridge and we can't build a road. It has to be an integrated project and the road and deep water harbour have to be part of it," he said."
The Sunday Chronicle of 24th September 2006 contained an article by Guyana's Ambassador Mr. Odeen Ishmael referring to the process entitled "Initiative for Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America" (IIRSA). Ambassador Ishmael stated:-
"A road link between Cuidad Bolivar in eastern Venezuela and Linden via Bartica, including river bridges, and the completion of the Takutu Bridge and the road link from there to Georgetown are listed as already approved IIRSA projects."
It is clear from the reports from time to time of investor interest and proposals concerning an interior road to Brazil that there have been enough initial opportunities for a government that is truly committed to the development of the interior as an overriding priority to respond to creatively.
One must not make too much of a contrast between the cautious Presidential response concerning the interior road and the verbal hubris associated with the opening of the hotel on time for the Cricket World Cup. And a road through the interior to Brazil has been an idea based on feasibility studies for over four decades. The matter has been on the post-war agenda since the first feasibility study in 1961 and the Highways to Happiness manifesto of the early United Force in the 1960s which spoke of a network of roads opening up and connecting different parts of the country.
But, had a member of the opposition made a statement concerning Buddy's International Hotel similar to the President's statement in September last year on the interior road, questioning the likely return on such an investment, the words used by President Jagdeo last week and quoted above would probably have been applied to him in spades.
Clearly, strategic decisions have to be made, taking into consideration limited state resources, available investment models, and not least, the slumbering tiger of Venezuela's claim to Essequibo.
But that is what all real national development is about. Our development strategy, once it moves beyond our coastal "island", will drive our foreign relations as well as our internal economic choices.
For instance, given the clear interest expressed by Brazilian investors, supported by the Brazilian and state governments, in a road through Guyana from the Takutu to a deep water port accessing the Southern Caribbean trade routes, should we be making ourselves more economically dependent on Venezuelan oil credits?
And, given the seriousness of the decisions that have to be taken, should the government be putting the Cricket World Cup before discussions with the opposition in parliament about cooperation?
In November 2005 the Prime Minister, performing the functions of President, told an IIRSA workshop that "the success of the Guyana/Brazil road project would open doors to a wide range of entrepreneurs in the region," and referred to "a deep water harbour that would allow larger volumes of products from Brazil to get to the Caribbean and beyond and for regional products to reach Brazil's northern states and further afield."
The official inter-country protocols that would facilitate a two-way traffic flow over the new Takutu bridge are well advanced and in some cases completed. But the Takutu bridge is a means, not an end. To quote Mr. Hardy "where would the bridge lead to once you drive off at Lethem?" And what has happened at government level to all the proposals, projects and statements of interest and hope?
The Rio Group of countries have long embarked on a new and different approach to development. This new approach brings together creative financing, isolated geographic regions, neglected communities and under-utilised natural resources. No longer is financing by the State the main input for undertaking big infrastructural projects.
Attention is paid to the goal of social, political, economic and environmental sustainability by providing concrete improvements in the quality of life of the population at large, by achieving efficiency and competitiveness in all related productive processes and by utilising natural resources while protecting the ecological heritage for future generations.
The principal vehicle for implementing this process is called Build-Operate Transfer (BOT). It's an imaginative form of financing where a private entity receives a franchise from the State to finance, design, construct, and operate a facility for a specified period, after which ownership is transferred back to the State. During the time when the entity operates the facility, it is allowed to charge appropriate tolls, rentals, and charges stated in its contract that enables recovery of investment and operating and maintenance expenses.
Many countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong use BOT for their major infrastructural road-building and other projects. More recently, in our own region Jamaica has used the BOT model for projects in rural water supply, upgrading the Donald Sangster Airport and for the largest construction project ever undertaken on the island, a 230 km tolled expressway.
Why are these approaches relevant to us at this time? Because for fifty-odd years we've been trying, with little success, to effectively grapple with problems of growth, development and making the best of our underutilized hinterland resources.
Why is there no national (not bureaucratic) agenda on this vital issue, involving the legitimate private sector and the parliamentary opposition as well as the government?
Is the national development vision of our government exhausted by two casino hotels and a conference centre?
One reason may be that there is another prospect presented by real development of the hinterland. It is unlikely that the crab-in-the-barrel, beggar-thy-neighbour politics of the coast - the ethnic political priorities to "getting in" and "keeping the other side out" - can survive a substantial growth of population in the interior.
Different popular perspectives may develop, some of which may make our present political leaders uncomfortable. Private enterprise driven infrastructural development and new settlements in the interior of Guyana cannot be confined within the parameters of our present party political culture, or of a highly centralized decision making governmental process in which all decisions, large or small, depend on or can be reversed by the nod of one person.
Our political leaders may well consider it "safer" to concentrate on quick-impact development schemes on the coast that impress voters.
But, "safer" for whom?
StabroekNews
A different vision of development
Friday, March 2nd 2007
"Guyana is an island surrounded by land". Recent public references to the development of Guyana remind one of this statement. The prospect of large casino hotels being built near and in Georgetown has excited many Guyanese, not least President Jagdeo.
The recent erection of many large buildings in the city and along the Coast by private persons is a phenomenon much discussed among Guyanese, and clearly there are more to come.
Whatever its source of investment, contrast this coastal building development with the interior of Guyana. Compare Bon Fin with Lethem, for instance.
Or, to give another example, compare President Jagdeo's statement at the opening of Buddy's International hotel last week with his response at a media briefing in September last year concerning the prospect of paving the road from Linden to Lethem to link up with the new Takutu bridge on the border of Guyana and Brazil.
At the opening of the new international hotel he is reported as saying, in praising the enterprise, determination and vision of its owner:-
"Over the past two years I have come to realize what I have always suspected, that in our country we have two generations of people, and these people do not get classified into one generation or the other based on their age - that has nothing to do with the chronology of life, but it has to do with attitudes." ……. "There is a generation which has buzz words like 'don't, cannot, should not, why should we'...and the other generation speaks about 'we must, we have to, we must try, we have to find a way', and if we are going to develop, we need to move more persons into the latter generation because for a very long time, the 'don't do' generation has stifled this country and they have made us feel inferior and they find everything about ourselves bad and anything foreign superior," the President said.
He stressed that this attitude "must change" and that Buddy's hotel is a "contribution to that positive change."
In September 2006, when asked at a media briefing about plans for paving the Lethem to Linden road and the construction of a bridge over the Kurupukari, he had this to say, as reported in Stabroek News of September 2006:-
"Asked at a media briefing about plans for paving the road from Lethem to Linden and the construction of a bridge over the Essequibo River at the Kurupukari Crossing, Jagdeo told the media on Tuesday that one could not spend millions of dollars on infrastructure when the rate of return per year is very minimal.
"You can't spend US$200 million on paving a road that earns you US$500,000 a year. Normally the rate of return should be about 10% so you have to earn about US$20 million a year and that is at the low end to justify that if government is financing it," he said.
While the government might be looking at an annual 10% rate of return on the investment, he said, if the private sector were to finance the paving of the road they would be looking at an annual rate of return close to 25%.
He said that when he looks at the traffic flow on that road he prefers "to keep my money in the bank." However, he said, if the development of the road could be linked to bigger projects such as exporting or bringing soya products or goods from the free trade area of Manaus or it is linked to the plans for the development of Northern Brazil then it becomes feasible.
He said there was no immediate plan to build a bridge at the Kurupukari Crossing."
The Government has been the recipient of approaches from Brazilian investors, encouraged by Mr. Paul Hardy who is an ardent advocate of a paved road through the interior of Guyana to Brazil to connect to the excellent Brazilian highway system from Bon Fin on the Takutu through Boa Vista to Manaus on the Amazon/Rio Negro. This is what Mr. Hardy had to say to Stabroek News in April last year:-
"The business community in Brazil is willing to pave the road from Lethem to connect to Georgetown and build the bridges along the route including one at Kurupukari across the Essequibo River in exchange for timber and mining concessions, GAP Leader Paul Hardy said.
In a recent interview, Hardy told Stabroek News that the Brazilian private sector had indicated its willingness during a recent meeting in Boa Vista. The businessmen were now working on a plan, which they hoped to present to the Guyana government, he said ….. Let us use it to that advantage and we don't depend on government's funding. Because we are a HIPC nation we cannot accept a loan. The groups are willing to come to Guyana if proper lobbying is done. We promise to lobby our government for that project to come through.
"Where would the bridge lead to once you drive off at Lethem?" he asked. "Once you get across the Takutu Bridge in Brazil you drive right through Brazil on good paved highways… [at] the Guyana end you drive off the bridge onto some rough laterite road. There is no infrastructure in place at Lethem."
Hardy said the construction of the bridge has to be an integrated project. Brazilian critics of the southern link, he said, were saying that Guyanese cannot even build a proper road and they want a bridge. "What's the use of building a bridge and we can't build a road. It has to be an integrated project and the road and deep water harbour have to be part of it," he said."
The Sunday Chronicle of 24th September 2006 contained an article by Guyana's Ambassador Mr. Odeen Ishmael referring to the process entitled "Initiative for Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America" (IIRSA). Ambassador Ishmael stated:-
"A road link between Cuidad Bolivar in eastern Venezuela and Linden via Bartica, including river bridges, and the completion of the Takutu Bridge and the road link from there to Georgetown are listed as already approved IIRSA projects."
It is clear from the reports from time to time of investor interest and proposals concerning an interior road to Brazil that there have been enough initial opportunities for a government that is truly committed to the development of the interior as an overriding priority to respond to creatively.
One must not make too much of a contrast between the cautious Presidential response concerning the interior road and the verbal hubris associated with the opening of the hotel on time for the Cricket World Cup. And a road through the interior to Brazil has been an idea based on feasibility studies for over four decades. The matter has been on the post-war agenda since the first feasibility study in 1961 and the Highways to Happiness manifesto of the early United Force in the 1960s which spoke of a network of roads opening up and connecting different parts of the country.
But, had a member of the opposition made a statement concerning Buddy's International Hotel similar to the President's statement in September last year on the interior road, questioning the likely return on such an investment, the words used by President Jagdeo last week and quoted above would probably have been applied to him in spades.
Clearly, strategic decisions have to be made, taking into consideration limited state resources, available investment models, and not least, the slumbering tiger of Venezuela's claim to Essequibo.
But that is what all real national development is about. Our development strategy, once it moves beyond our coastal "island", will drive our foreign relations as well as our internal economic choices.
For instance, given the clear interest expressed by Brazilian investors, supported by the Brazilian and state governments, in a road through Guyana from the Takutu to a deep water port accessing the Southern Caribbean trade routes, should we be making ourselves more economically dependent on Venezuelan oil credits?
And, given the seriousness of the decisions that have to be taken, should the government be putting the Cricket World Cup before discussions with the opposition in parliament about cooperation?
In November 2005 the Prime Minister, performing the functions of President, told an IIRSA workshop that "the success of the Guyana/Brazil road project would open doors to a wide range of entrepreneurs in the region," and referred to "a deep water harbour that would allow larger volumes of products from Brazil to get to the Caribbean and beyond and for regional products to reach Brazil's northern states and further afield."
The official inter-country protocols that would facilitate a two-way traffic flow over the new Takutu bridge are well advanced and in some cases completed. But the Takutu bridge is a means, not an end. To quote Mr. Hardy "where would the bridge lead to once you drive off at Lethem?" And what has happened at government level to all the proposals, projects and statements of interest and hope?
The Rio Group of countries have long embarked on a new and different approach to development. This new approach brings together creative financing, isolated geographic regions, neglected communities and under-utilised natural resources. No longer is financing by the State the main input for undertaking big infrastructural projects.
Attention is paid to the goal of social, political, economic and environmental sustainability by providing concrete improvements in the quality of life of the population at large, by achieving efficiency and competitiveness in all related productive processes and by utilising natural resources while protecting the ecological heritage for future generations.
The principal vehicle for implementing this process is called Build-Operate Transfer (BOT). It's an imaginative form of financing where a private entity receives a franchise from the State to finance, design, construct, and operate a facility for a specified period, after which ownership is transferred back to the State. During the time when the entity operates the facility, it is allowed to charge appropriate tolls, rentals, and charges stated in its contract that enables recovery of investment and operating and maintenance expenses.
Many countries such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong use BOT for their major infrastructural road-building and other projects. More recently, in our own region Jamaica has used the BOT model for projects in rural water supply, upgrading the Donald Sangster Airport and for the largest construction project ever undertaken on the island, a 230 km tolled expressway.
Why are these approaches relevant to us at this time? Because for fifty-odd years we've been trying, with little success, to effectively grapple with problems of growth, development and making the best of our underutilized hinterland resources.
Why is there no national (not bureaucratic) agenda on this vital issue, involving the legitimate private sector and the parliamentary opposition as well as the government?
Is the national development vision of our government exhausted by two casino hotels and a conference centre?
One reason may be that there is another prospect presented by real development of the hinterland. It is unlikely that the crab-in-the-barrel, beggar-thy-neighbour politics of the coast - the ethnic political priorities to "getting in" and "keeping the other side out" - can survive a substantial growth of population in the interior.
Different popular perspectives may develop, some of which may make our present political leaders uncomfortable. Private enterprise driven infrastructural development and new settlements in the interior of Guyana cannot be confined within the parameters of our present party political culture, or of a highly centralized decision making governmental process in which all decisions, large or small, depend on or can be reversed by the nod of one person.
Our political leaders may well consider it "safer" to concentrate on quick-impact development schemes on the coast that impress voters.
But, "safer" for whom?
StabroekNews
Guyana and the Wider World (Part 4)
Extracted From: http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/guyana-and-wider-world-part-4.html
Guyana and the Wider World
Guyana's Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) and the forestry
sector (Part 4)
By Janette Bulkan
Stabroek News
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Today's column considers the relation of interior/forestryroads to development within the context of the third cause singled out by the PRSP as contributory to endemic poverty: the absence of noncomplementing growth-oriented infrastructure (PRSP 2001, p. 7). This analysis is undertaken in the context of the question: Why is there persistent poverty in the interior alongside the parcelling out of
Guyana's best endowed forests in largescale forestry concessions?
There is a long-standing world-wide debate over whether forest roads facilitate forest degradation and illegal logging or stimulate conservation efforts; whether interior roads instigate social conflict by displacing indigenous groups or provide market access to economic goods for hinterland communities; and whether they promote jobs and local economic development or only favour the trade interests of
large-scale timber producers. The short answer in most places is that under a regulatory framework which is implemented to maximise public good and not private interests, roads - feeder or forest roads, indeed all interior roads and trails - can spell sustainable development. In Guyana the regulatory framework is the Road Administration Division (RAD) of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications. However, away from the coast, RAD's reach is weak if not non-existent.
Among the constraints facing the RAD which are listed in the National Development Strategy 1996 are: weak institutional status; limited institutional capacity (critically short of technical staff); inadequate financial resources and lack of equipment (NDS, chapter 38).At least in its early years, the Guyana Natural Resources Agency intended to aid private sector constructors to rationalise alignments of logging and mining roads in the national interest The Guyana
Integrated Natural Resources Information System (GINRIS) developed with German (GTZ) aid in the late 1990s and available at the Guyana Lands & Surveys Commission HQ is an excellent tool for joint planning and display of hinterland road alignments relative to logging and mining concessions. Why is GINRIS not more used and made publicly accessible?
Five years later, the PRSP does not mention any improvement in the status or resources of the RAD, noting that "the capacity of the RAD… will also be strengthened" (PRSP, 2001, p. 43).
In the absence of a functioning regulatory framework, private interests can (but not always) prevail over public good. Some of the public allweather roads have been constructed and/or maintained by mining and logging companies - notably the Omai Company's maintenance of 72 km of road from Wismar to the Omai Junction on the Essequibo River (Demerara Timbers Ltd. contributed G$200,000 a month to Omai for this road maintenance); DTL also maintains the road between Omai Junction and
Kuruduni, while the mining company, ETK, has upgraded the Iteballi to Turoparu trail.
The large logging companies build roads in their concessions (and through Amerindian titled lands and in concessions they rent illegally)in order to get logs out.
Many of these roads are built in contravention of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1996 guidelines [http://www.epaguyana.org/d ownloads/Volume5Forestry% 20EIA%20guidelines.pdf].
Private companies like the IWPI operating in Akawini and St Monica have disregarded the need for a permit from the EPA prior to building logging roads and loggingtitled Amerindian village lands.
The road building guidelines in the GFC Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting (second edition, November 2002, which follow best-practice indications from the Forestry Department of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization) are still voluntary for the longerestablished logging concessions.
In the absence of coordination among agencies like the GFC and EPA with the RAD, as recommended in the NDS, an opportunity to maximise the public good by requiring timber companies to follow official coordination and regulation of road-building in the interior is lost.
The logging industry, for its part, has complained for many years about the high cost of building and maintaining forest roads in a country where roadstone is not naturally well distributed and rainfall is high.The National Forest Plan (NFP) recognises this problem: "The establishment of primary access roads by concessionaires in the permanent production forests shall be co-ordinated and regulated in accordance with national development strategies, to improve the road
infrastructure of Guyana's hinterland" (Part IV, section A 1); and "Special fiscal rewards shall be provided to concessionaires who establish primary access roads which meet appropriate forest engineering standards, which can form part of a national road development programme" (Part IV, section B 1).
However, the Ministry of Transport and the GFC do not seem to have either a coordinated roading plan or any published incentive scheme for roadbuilding loggers.
The effects of an absence of official coordination and regulation of road-building in the interior are evident in the 'frontier-like'condition where some logging companies which have built roads arrogate to themselves the right of passage through those roads, sometimes with fatal consequences.
At the Barama Company Limited's Public Stakeholder meeting on February 28, 2005, the then Commissioner of Geology and Mines and the employer of a dead gold miner held Barama responsible for the latter's death after the company's refusal to allow him passage on a road running through its concession.
Guyana and the Wider World
Guyana's Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP) and the forestry
sector (Part 4)
By Janette Bulkan
Stabroek News
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Today's column considers the relation of interior/forestryroads to development within the context of the third cause singled out by the PRSP as contributory to endemic poverty: the absence of noncomplementing growth-oriented infrastructure (PRSP 2001, p. 7). This analysis is undertaken in the context of the question: Why is there persistent poverty in the interior alongside the parcelling out of
Guyana's best endowed forests in largescale forestry concessions?
There is a long-standing world-wide debate over whether forest roads facilitate forest degradation and illegal logging or stimulate conservation efforts; whether interior roads instigate social conflict by displacing indigenous groups or provide market access to economic goods for hinterland communities; and whether they promote jobs and local economic development or only favour the trade interests of
large-scale timber producers. The short answer in most places is that under a regulatory framework which is implemented to maximise public good and not private interests, roads - feeder or forest roads, indeed all interior roads and trails - can spell sustainable development. In Guyana the regulatory framework is the Road Administration Division (RAD) of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications. However, away from the coast, RAD's reach is weak if not non-existent.
Among the constraints facing the RAD which are listed in the National Development Strategy 1996 are: weak institutional status; limited institutional capacity (critically short of technical staff); inadequate financial resources and lack of equipment (NDS, chapter 38).At least in its early years, the Guyana Natural Resources Agency intended to aid private sector constructors to rationalise alignments of logging and mining roads in the national interest The Guyana
Integrated Natural Resources Information System (GINRIS) developed with German (GTZ) aid in the late 1990s and available at the Guyana Lands & Surveys Commission HQ is an excellent tool for joint planning and display of hinterland road alignments relative to logging and mining concessions. Why is GINRIS not more used and made publicly accessible?
Five years later, the PRSP does not mention any improvement in the status or resources of the RAD, noting that "the capacity of the RAD… will also be strengthened" (PRSP, 2001, p. 43).
In the absence of a functioning regulatory framework, private interests can (but not always) prevail over public good. Some of the public allweather roads have been constructed and/or maintained by mining and logging companies - notably the Omai Company's maintenance of 72 km of road from Wismar to the Omai Junction on the Essequibo River (Demerara Timbers Ltd. contributed G$200,000 a month to Omai for this road maintenance); DTL also maintains the road between Omai Junction and
Kuruduni, while the mining company, ETK, has upgraded the Iteballi to Turoparu trail.
The large logging companies build roads in their concessions (and through Amerindian titled lands and in concessions they rent illegally)in order to get logs out.
Many of these roads are built in contravention of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1996 guidelines [http://www.epaguyana.org/d ownloads/Volume5Forestry% 20EIA%20guidelines.pdf].
Private companies like the IWPI operating in Akawini and St Monica have disregarded the need for a permit from the EPA prior to building logging roads and loggingtitled Amerindian village lands.
The road building guidelines in the GFC Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting (second edition, November 2002, which follow best-practice indications from the Forestry Department of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization) are still voluntary for the longerestablished logging concessions.
In the absence of coordination among agencies like the GFC and EPA with the RAD, as recommended in the NDS, an opportunity to maximise the public good by requiring timber companies to follow official coordination and regulation of road-building in the interior is lost.
The logging industry, for its part, has complained for many years about the high cost of building and maintaining forest roads in a country where roadstone is not naturally well distributed and rainfall is high.The National Forest Plan (NFP) recognises this problem: "The establishment of primary access roads by concessionaires in the permanent production forests shall be co-ordinated and regulated in accordance with national development strategies, to improve the road
infrastructure of Guyana's hinterland" (Part IV, section A 1); and "Special fiscal rewards shall be provided to concessionaires who establish primary access roads which meet appropriate forest engineering standards, which can form part of a national road development programme" (Part IV, section B 1).
However, the Ministry of Transport and the GFC do not seem to have either a coordinated roading plan or any published incentive scheme for roadbuilding loggers.
The effects of an absence of official coordination and regulation of road-building in the interior are evident in the 'frontier-like'condition where some logging companies which have built roads arrogate to themselves the right of passage through those roads, sometimes with fatal consequences.
At the Barama Company Limited's Public Stakeholder meeting on February 28, 2005, the then Commissioner of Geology and Mines and the employer of a dead gold miner held Barama responsible for the latter's death after the company's refusal to allow him passage on a road running through its concession.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Logger shot dead
Extracted From:
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/logger-shot-dead.html
Logger shot dead in Essequibo backlands
-prison escapee suspected
Thursday, March 1st 2007
By Dianne Gonsalves
An Essequibo man was shot dead on Tuesday night, reportedly by a Mazaruni Prison escapee who has managed to run rings around police and prison officers since December last year.
Dead is 38-year-old Indar Gajadar also known as 'Son' of Zorg Market Dam, Essequibo Coast, and the owner of a logging concession.
While Commander of 'G' Division, Gavin Primo has not named the escapee as the killer, he told Stabroek News last evening that the description of the suspect fits that of escaped prisoner Ronald Daniels called 'Black Boy'. Police have since arrested five other men and searched a number of homes in the area.
"We are continuing our search for this prisoner. We had ranks checking for two days for him, but he is not staying one place all the time... he is moving around and persons are assisting him," Primo told Stabroek News last night.
Basmattie Gadajar, the dead man's sister, told Stabroek News that her brother left for the Backdam on Monday last and according to her he had intended to return home four days after. She said she and other family members were at home around 7 am yesterday, when they received the news of her brother's death.
She said her brother had often complained about a man who had been stealing from the workers in the backdam and he had also reported the matter to the police station. She recounted too that her brother had said that the man stole foodstuff and valuables from the workers and was always able to make good his escape.
The woman said too that her brother did not own a gun but whenever he made reports to the police they would tell him to 'shoot the man' and never acted on his reports.
The dead man's sister told this newspaper that one of her brother's workers said that they were cutting logs in the backdam when a man with a shotgun approached them.
"He said the man told my brother to hand over his chainsaw, but since the saw was only three months into use, he apparently refused to cooperate," she said.
She said her brother's worker said other workers also watched as the "thief man" pointed his gun to the side of Gajadar's right rib cage area and pulled the trigger. The man said as soon as Gajadar fell to the ground, they started running for help.
According to the man, it was not until around 7 am yesterday that they were able to get to the public road since they were moving on foot and were about twenty miles up the sand pit backlands. Basmati told Stabroek News that according to the worker, when the police reached the area where Gajadar was lying in a pool of blood, their vehicle started to malfunction.
The man said that since the vehicle could not move they decided to put Gajadar's lifeless body into his tractor and pull the police vehicle back to the public road. The worker told the dead man's relatives that when the police arrived on the scene they made no effort to look for her brother's killer.
Gajadar leaves to mourn his wife and other relatives. He was described by his mother as a quiet and hard-working individual.
Police in Essequibo had launched a hunt to recapture Daniels, a prisoner who escaped from the Mazaruni prison last December and had been wreaking havoc in his hometown, Bethany village. Director of Prisons Dale Erskine had told Stabroek News in January that the police were trying to recapture Daniels. He said, however, that officers would not just randomly go in search of the man unless they receive leads or a position where the man could be found. Erskine said that police in Essequibo received word that the man was visible in the community and were working with those leads to recapture him. Daniels had escaped from the prison on December 12 last year. According to reports, the prisoner was working in the prison kitchen when he jumped over the fence and escaped. Daniels was serving a two-year sentence for break and enter and larceny committed sometime in 2005.
Meanwhile, Primo said they have received reports that Daniels is usually sheltered by persons in the Bethany community. The police officer noted that the escapee knows the terrain well and has been elusive. Asked whether there had been any recent sighting of the prisoner prior to Tuesday's shooting, Primo said no, but acknowledged that they had received reports of Daniels terrorizing persons working in the backlands.
(Additional reporting by Nigel Williams and Heppilena Ferguson)
StabroekNews
http://guyanaforestry.blogspot.com/2007/03/logger-shot-dead.html
Logger shot dead in Essequibo backlands
-prison escapee suspected
Thursday, March 1st 2007
By Dianne Gonsalves
An Essequibo man was shot dead on Tuesday night, reportedly by a Mazaruni Prison escapee who has managed to run rings around police and prison officers since December last year.
Dead is 38-year-old Indar Gajadar also known as 'Son' of Zorg Market Dam, Essequibo Coast, and the owner of a logging concession.
While Commander of 'G' Division, Gavin Primo has not named the escapee as the killer, he told Stabroek News last evening that the description of the suspect fits that of escaped prisoner Ronald Daniels called 'Black Boy'. Police have since arrested five other men and searched a number of homes in the area.
"We are continuing our search for this prisoner. We had ranks checking for two days for him, but he is not staying one place all the time... he is moving around and persons are assisting him," Primo told Stabroek News last night.
Basmattie Gadajar, the dead man's sister, told Stabroek News that her brother left for the Backdam on Monday last and according to her he had intended to return home four days after. She said she and other family members were at home around 7 am yesterday, when they received the news of her brother's death.
She said her brother had often complained about a man who had been stealing from the workers in the backdam and he had also reported the matter to the police station. She recounted too that her brother had said that the man stole foodstuff and valuables from the workers and was always able to make good his escape.
The woman said too that her brother did not own a gun but whenever he made reports to the police they would tell him to 'shoot the man' and never acted on his reports.
The dead man's sister told this newspaper that one of her brother's workers said that they were cutting logs in the backdam when a man with a shotgun approached them.
"He said the man told my brother to hand over his chainsaw, but since the saw was only three months into use, he apparently refused to cooperate," she said.
She said her brother's worker said other workers also watched as the "thief man" pointed his gun to the side of Gajadar's right rib cage area and pulled the trigger. The man said as soon as Gajadar fell to the ground, they started running for help.
According to the man, it was not until around 7 am yesterday that they were able to get to the public road since they were moving on foot and were about twenty miles up the sand pit backlands. Basmati told Stabroek News that according to the worker, when the police reached the area where Gajadar was lying in a pool of blood, their vehicle started to malfunction.
The man said that since the vehicle could not move they decided to put Gajadar's lifeless body into his tractor and pull the police vehicle back to the public road. The worker told the dead man's relatives that when the police arrived on the scene they made no effort to look for her brother's killer.
Gajadar leaves to mourn his wife and other relatives. He was described by his mother as a quiet and hard-working individual.
Police in Essequibo had launched a hunt to recapture Daniels, a prisoner who escaped from the Mazaruni prison last December and had been wreaking havoc in his hometown, Bethany village. Director of Prisons Dale Erskine had told Stabroek News in January that the police were trying to recapture Daniels. He said, however, that officers would not just randomly go in search of the man unless they receive leads or a position where the man could be found. Erskine said that police in Essequibo received word that the man was visible in the community and were working with those leads to recapture him. Daniels had escaped from the prison on December 12 last year. According to reports, the prisoner was working in the prison kitchen when he jumped over the fence and escaped. Daniels was serving a two-year sentence for break and enter and larceny committed sometime in 2005.
Meanwhile, Primo said they have received reports that Daniels is usually sheltered by persons in the Bethany community. The police officer noted that the escapee knows the terrain well and has been elusive. Asked whether there had been any recent sighting of the prisoner prior to Tuesday's shooting, Primo said no, but acknowledged that they had received reports of Daniels terrorizing persons working in the backlands.
(Additional reporting by Nigel Williams and Heppilena Ferguson)
StabroekNews
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