Roughly half of the 12.5M hectares of state forests has been allocated, while the forests types and productive capacity of the remainder needs to be verified, according to Forestry Commissioner James Singh.
Singh, Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), made the disclosure on Wednesday while responding to Chairman of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources Odinga Lumumba, who questioned him on a statement that was made by Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman during his budget presentation in January.
Trotman had stated that the present APNU+AFC administration met an “alarming situation” where 100% of the country’s productive forests was allocated by the past PPP/C government. His statement has been challenged as inaccurate by the opposition PPP/C, but Trotman has maintained that his information was based on a document provided by the GFC, which showed the “Total Production Area Allocated by GFC” to be 7,027, 840 hectares, which is 56% of the total state forest, but “represents 100% of lands identified for production.”
On Wednesday, during a committee hearing, the issue was raised by Lumumba and Trotman said that his statement was not meant to be contemptuous of anyone or the GFC.
Lumumba said he understood Trotman’s statement to mean that there is no productive state forestry land left in Guyana.
In answer to Lumumba, Singh said the total state forest estate is at approximately 12,594,000 hectares and just over 6M hectares have been allocated to date.
“That has gone to who?” questioned Lumumba.
Singh said it has been allocated as state forest permissions to various concessionaries.
“What happened to the other six million?” Lumumba asked.
“The six million is unallocated but we have to verify what are the forest types and what is the productive capacity,” Singh said, while adding that only the basic forest types are known and suitability of the terrain and the topography are unknown.
At this point, Lumumba questioned whether the two million hectares that President David Granger recently pledged in New York for forest conservation is from the remaining 6M.
Singh said he was unsure whether a decision had been taken on this.
“No, listen to what I am asking: You said 6M is the balance. That two million has to come from somewhere; it can’t come from the sky, it has to come from somewhere. Where is it coming from?” Lumumba pressed.
“Yes, but what I am saying is that I don’t think that decision has been taken as yet,” Singh stated, even as committee member Neendkumar pointed out that nothing has been allocated as yet.
At this point, Trotman said that the president would make that pronouncement “when he is ready.”
“So it is not cast in concrete?” Lumumba asked.
“What?” Trotman enquired.
“The pronouncement is not cast in concrete,” Lumumba responded.
“The pronouncement was a promise made by the President, which was really an affirmation of a commitment made by the Government of Guyana in 1994 that we would set aside 17% of our forest to conservation and the President in New York re-stated that commitment,” Trotman said.
He said that it is now for the government to work out where the land would come from as he said the commitment was made in 1994 under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
“This is really to meet an international commitment that Guyana gave many years ago. We will now have to work out where it is best, because it doesn’t have to be all in one place, because already there is Iwokrama, there are already some lands set aside as indigenous land titles,” the minister said.
President Granger had made the commitment in April in New York, where he and other world signed the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Lumumba noted that some of the lands would have already been set aside, while Trotman said that there is nothing to worry about. “We are not going into mining districts and seize lands or take away lands from persons who have concessions, there are already some forests which have been designated to conservation…,” he added.
Meanwhile, Singh, upon a request by Lumumba, is expected to submit a report, detailing how much of the country’s productive forestry was allocated before 1992 and how much was allocated since, to the Natural Resources Committee.
