Dear Editor,
The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) refers to a letter written by Mr Tarron Khemraj in the Wednesday, August 11 edition of Stabroek News captioned ‘Will the Minister of Agriculture now be moving towards independent forest monitoring in the forest industry?’ The same letter was carried in the August 11 edition of Kaieteur News.
This letter is very misleading since it gives the wrong impression that very little progress has been made in terms of Guyana subjecting itself to Independent Forest Monitoring (IFM), and also exploring the possibility of joining the EU FLEGT programme.
Additionally, both media houses and Mr Khemraj could have avoided these non-factual statements by simply seeking clarification on both issues, either directly from the Guyana Forestry Commis-sion, or alternatively by visiting the GFC or LCDS websites (www.forestry.gov.gy: www.lcds.gv) to apprise themselves of the latest developments in these important areas.
Let me first remind all stakeholders, especially Mr Khemraj, that Guyana has a well established record of forest management and harvesting which is compliant with international environmental and best practices. These have been derived from sound collaboratively developed policies, guidelines and legislation.
Further, Guyana has probably the only truly national log tagging and log tracking system in the entire world. This enables us to establish a chain of custody as well as being able to verify if produce came from legally issued and sustainably managed forests.
The twenty-five (25) strategically located forest stations; resident forest officers at large concessions; provision of training in Reduced Impact Logging; Compulsory Verification of 100% pre-harvest inventory information prior to harvesting, in collaboration with submission of an Annual Operational Plan (AOP) for each calendar year of operation; supported by three (3) different levels of audit make this system functional, robust and credible.
On the basis of the above and combined with strong support from direct and indirect stakeholders, Guyana is internationally recognized as having a scientifically established low rate of deforestation (<1 %) and also recognized as a source of forest produce originating from sustainably managed forest.
Guyana is proud of this record and visibility and we have publicly said that we are willing to subject ourse1ves to independent forest monitoring.
For Mr Khemraj’s information, detailed Terms of Reference have been developed for IFM in collaboration with representatives of the Climate Depart-ment in the Ministry of Environment, Kingdom of Norway. These have been advertised publicly for a thirty-day period and we expect that the successful applicant will be in Guyana in September 2010 to commence this activity.
On the issue of engaging in the EU FLEGT process, Mr Khemraj needs to be reminded that the Government of Guyana has been very proactive in this regard.
For example, there was an initial scoping and sensitization meeting of key Guyanese stakeholders in March 2010 with a consultant from the European Tropical Institute (ETI). ETI is one of the key agencies that promote the EU FLECT programme. This process will continue with other stakeholder sessions scheduled for September 2010.
Mr Khemraj should also be advised that Guyanese stakeholders were also recently briefed (July 2010) on the implications of the USA Lacy Act relative to the export of forest produce from Guyana and its importation into the USA. The activity was done in collaboration with US AID/US Forest Service at the invitation of the Government of Guyana.
These are just a few of the activities that have been done; work will continue to be done in these areas, as in additional areas such as the further development of the world’s forest national scale Monitoring, Reporting and Verification System (MRVS); implementation of the Readiness Activities under Guyana’s Readiness Preparation Proposal (RPP) completing actions under Guyana Readiness Governance Development Plan (RGDP) such as the review and revision of the National Forest Policy; National Forest Plan; Code of Practice for Forest Operations; Code of Practice for Non-Timber Forest Products; Com-munity Forestry Development; Operat-ing of Guyana’s Legality Assurance System; preparation of a Code of Practice for processing operations; harmonization of land use policies and guidelines, etc.
I will not go into the details of these except to say that the people and Government of Guyana are committed to doing everything possible to ensure that there is utilization of our renewable natural resources, but in a manner that is consistent with internationally accepted best practices, collaboratively to a Guyana specific situation.
However, Mr Khemraj can access these updates in real time from the two websites mentioned earlier; alternatively he is free to seek same directly from relevant GFC staff members.
In closing, we are encouraged by the fact that stakeholders see these issues as being important to the national socio-economic and environmental development of Guyana and welcome dialogue that is constructive and aimed at promoting the development of the sector. We urge, however, that information presented in the public domain must be objective, factual and current.
Yours faithfully,
James Singh
Commissioner of Forests
