Dear Editor,

I wish to respond to the unsigned articles published in the Guyana Times (‘Govt objects to Suriname map with Guyana’s territory at World Bank forum,’ January 16) and Kaieteur News (‘Gov’t protests Suriname’s map showing Guyana’s territory – demands Janette Bulkan’s removal from key World Bank panel,’ January 17).  Apart from the oddity of the government treating as news in mid-January 2010 an event held in Washington DC at the end of October 2009, I wish to point out that I was not present at the meeting of the Participants Committee of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.  So I could hardly have protested at the display of a map at a meeting at which I was not present.  Another Guyanese member of the same Technical Advisory Panel was also not present at the Washington forum, and so likewise could not have made a comment.

According to the letter quoted by Kaieteur News, the Ministry of Agriculture/Minister for Forestry says that “it is a known fact” that Bulkan has “been guilty of writing public, critical articles of Guyana’s forestry sector filled with inaccuracies, distortions of facts; and unsubstantiated allegations of corruption, bribery and illegal logging” and “has consistently and publicly displayed her lack of understanding of key forest management principles.”

Through your column, Editor, I request the Government of Guyana to provide specific quotations where I show such a poor understanding, in relation to the published national policies and laws and regulations of Guyana, and in relation to standard textbooks on sustainable forest management.

I might point out that I hold a doctorate degree from Yale University for a thesis on the slippages between national policies, laws, administrative procedures and actual practices in the forest sector of Guiana Shield countries.  So my academic committee of university professors, who have extensive tropical field experience, must have approved of my understanding of these key principles.

I challenge the government also to quote the “defamatory and slanderous correspondences…  accusing government officials including the President of Guyana of being incompetent and involved in clandestine activities.” I have certainly raised questions concerning the apparent differences between what the laws of Guyana say and what is reported to be happening, but these valid questions are hardly slanderous statements.

It is unclear what the government hoped to gain from intervening in my employment outside Guyana on a task not affecting Guyana. It can scarcely enhance Guyana’s international reputation for diplomacy or its wish to be seen as a leading country in forest-based climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Yours faithfully,
Janette Bulkan