The need for assistance with marketing and accessing equipment to turn out finished products were among the issues aired when the Guyana Forestry Commis-sion (GFC) held a consultation on Monday with representatives of Amerindian communities involved in logging.
Ninety-eight representatives from Amerindian communities involved in forestry-related activities in all ten administrative regions attended the ‘Government of Guy-ana Policy Approaches in support of Amerindians Com-munity Forestry Enterprises’ consultation at the Umana Yana. A second forum on chainsaw milling was expected to be held yesterday at the same venue.
Commissioner of the GFC, James Singh said the forum was held to inform various workers in the forestry sector about the government’s policies and to gather feedback from the different regions.
At Monday’s forum, Stabroek News spoke with Colin Andrews from the village of Moraikobai in Region Five. He told this newspaper that there were several problems that he and others faced while logging in that area and identified the lack of proper avenues to market their products, high transportation costs, and inaccessibility to equipment to produce finished products as some of the major issues. He said that loggers living closer to the coast had easier access to transportation and were thus able to sell their products at a much cheaper price than those living farther from the coast.
Andrews said that at one time, his village had the problem of people going into the area and accessing the forests, but according to him, this has since been eliminated. He explained that the villagers met and decided that they needed to put a stop to this dangerous practice and so far, their efforts have been successful.
The village Toshao (captain) opined that the village councils needed to do more for the communities. According to him, the Amerindian Act of 2006 has given the village councils enough power to adequately address some of the problems that some of the loggers ask the GFC to deal with.
Meanwhile, Andrews said he welcomed the consultation since it provided the opportunity for different regions to share their experiences. Moreover, he felt that the collaboration between the communities and the GFC was good since it made the communities aware of several of the policies of the commission.
He also expressed the view that the GFC should hold consultations with the loggers and other forestry related workers before implementing new policies. Andrews said he hoped that the concerns raised by the organisations would be adequately addressed by the commission.
Another logger from Annai in Region Nine said that he felt the meeting was beneficial.
He said he and other loggers from his village had only recently come under the umbrella organisation of the GFC. He explained that in his village, the main economic activities were logging and farming.
Head of the Planning and Development Division of the GFC, Pradeepa Bholanath, said the forum brought to the fore several of the individual needs of the different communities. When asked which of the requests stood out, she indicated that the plea from the various communities for equipment to produce value added products.
Bholanath said that the GFC would try in various ways to help the communities in this regard. She explained that while acquiring equipment often seemed a difficult task, there were many willing donors, including international agencies. Bholanath stated that on many occasions it simply depended on these organisations receiving well-drafted proposals.
She said that the commission will seek to point these projects to relevant agencies and to even help them with their proposals. The forum, she added, did not only focus solely on the forestry aspects but also on social development since the commission realised that all these different aspects of their lives are intertwined.
Community Development Officer of the Commission, Margot Boyce also underscored this. She said the forum was trying to hear what the particular needs of the attendees were and to meet some of these needs.
She said this included providing scholarships to enable those people with various interests in forestry to get adequate training.
