With approximately 1.6 million hectares of forest free after Barama Company Ltd refused to renew its Timber Sales Agreement, the government is currently reviewing a number of options for its alternative use.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon announced at last week’s post-Cabinet press briefing that Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman has presented a number of options for the alternative use of the land and to address the welfare of the workers who will be affected by the company’s decision to end the agreement that had been in force for 25 years.
Harmon explained that since it is a large amount of land, “…We are looking at medium-scale and small-scale work in that area,” he said. Referencing the small-scale work, Harmon explained that there is a possibility of the employees, who are currently in the sector, forming themselves into co-ops to be able to work in the areas.
He also pointed out that the government has already received expressions of interests from both foreign and local companies but the priority would be “to look at our own Guyanese people in that regard.”
Harmon also explained that after careful deliberations Cabinet has decided to appoint a subcommittee comprising the ministers of Natural Resources, the Minister of Communities, the Minister of Business, the Minister of Indigenous People’s Affairs and the Minister of Social Protection. The subcommittee will discuss the options that were presented by the Trotman and the feasibility and possible implementation of them.
The subcommittee is required to submit its recommendations by November 30.
The company had announced last month that it was not interested in renewing its agreement with the government and as such 500 workers would be retrenched.
General Manager of Barama Mohindra Chand had later explained that the 180 workers who were initially laid off had been included in the 500 and as such only 320 workers (including expatriates) will be laid off in the next three months as the company is in the process of closing down its forest operations.
The Ministry of Natural Resources had said that in 2015, at the request of Barama for a renewal of its contract, Cabinet gave its ‘no objection’ to the continuation of the arrangement but recommended the convening of a Task Force to examine the request.
This Task Force was seen as necessary given the “rapacious activities” of some foreign companies operating in the forests of Guyana, and “some not so positive observations that had been expressed about Barama in particular,” the ministry had said in a statement.
The statement said that the Task Force met on several occasions and visited Barama’s operations at Buck Hall, Essequibo, following which the legal consultant began reviewing the existing contract, forest concessions, and tax incentives previously granted to the company, while other members evaluated workers’ rights, value-added operations and environmental management practices, among other things.
However, the company has since opted to decline the renewal of the contract.
Barama Company Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samling Global Ltd, a Malaysia-based conglomerate with businesses across the world. Barama was established in Guyana in 1991 when it was granted a lowland, mixed tropical forest concession in the northwest region of Guyana.
