Dear Editor,
The Minister of Agricul-ture is reported by the Guyana Chronicle (‘The benefits of Fairtrade certification,’ August 4) to have “announced Guyana’s projected signing on to a Fairtrade agreement that could provide some amount of guarantees for their [rice producers] protection against threats from international markets.” One of the key features of a Fairtrade agreement is provision for independent audit and verification that the producer associations are complying with their environmental and social commitments and that the Fairtrade premium is being distributed and spent on agreed community development projects. Would the Minister of Agriculture, in his capacity as junior Minister for Forestry, now agree that the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) should likewise move forward beyond the initial contact with the European Commission for similar independent forest monitoring in the context of the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Govern-ance and Trade Action Plan (FLEGT, 2003)? All we have so far is an item number 6.18 in the minutes of meeting 25 of the President’s Low Carbon Development Stra-tegy Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee of 16 March 2010 that, “The GFC would be exploring the possibility of including IFM [independent forest monitoring] into the FLEGT agenda for Guyana.” As in agricultural Fairtrade, independent monitoring is a key component of a voluntary partnership agreement between the EU trading bloc and other timber producing countries. Independent monitoring is not an option which can be excluded. What can the Minister now tell us?
Yours faithfully,
Tarron Khemraj
