The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) held a consultative workshop last Thursday to review the revised code of practice for timber harvesting with the aim of developing guidelines and national standards to address social issues for the sustainable management of the forestry sector.
“Given the increasing emphasis that was being placed on the social aspect of forestry, the GFC recognised the need for integrating into the code of practice for timber operations, the social issues relevant to the forest sector,” Commissioner of Forests, James Singh, told participants at the opening of the workshop at the Cara Inn.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has contributed US$400,000 to support the social and community development programme in the sector over a three-year period.
Singh stated a decision was made to conduct a detailed participatory study to develop national standards for social aspects of sustainable forest management and to include recommendations as to how these can be incorporated into the GFC standards and monitoring systems.
The funding for the activity was provided by the United Kingdom’s Department For International Development (DFID).
Singh said the consultants have submitted their report entitled “Integrating social issues into forest management systems” and the workshop would focus on this.
He said the GFC recognised the social aspect or the “people side” of forestry as an important element of timber harvesting.
He noted that the GFC had contracted the Caribbean Institute for Development and Administration (CARICAD) to conduct a review of the forestry sector and to identify the critical social issues which needed to be addressed in communities and around logging operations.
A social development programme was developed, he said, which recognised that the GFC could not address all the social issues by itself.
An inter-agency approach was adopted and outreach visits were made to communities by a broad-based team comprising representatives from various government ministries and agencies.
Specific issues were identified and the ministries and agencies sought to address those relevant to their particular area.
Singh said the programme was reviewed recently and suggestions were made to forge a more strategic alliance with two key ministries if the programme is to be effective.
He disclosed that the GFC along with its social development advisor, Dr P.I. Gomes of CARICAD, is now working actively with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the Ministry of Local Government to finalise the revised social development programme.
Dr Gomes told Stabroek News last week that the work being done by CARICAD in collaboration with the GFC aims to address the issues faced by people whose livelihood depend on forestry.
He said a lot of attention has been given to trees in the forest while the issues impacting upon the people have been neglected.
“While the emphasis would be on the ‘people side’, we also want to make the timber industry improve its productivity and ensure that the standards being demanded for both the domestic and export markets will give a better quality and make us more competitive, thereby, generating greater revenue and enhancing the quality of life of the people in the sector,” he stated.
Dr Gomes said it was encouraging that government ministries such as the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, Ministry of Local Government and Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security will be working to address the concerns of the people in the hinterland.
He said the code of practice will have minimum standards for harvesting.
It will also have international standards to be abided by on a voluntary basis to satisfy international conventions and environmental regulations so that forest certification would be more easily facilitated, he said.
The drafting of the code of practice for timber harvesting began in 1994.
In 1997, a decision was taken by the GFC to have the code implemented by forest concessionaires.
Deputy Commissioner of Forests, Forest Resource Management, Julian Evans, said the first code of practice was disseminated to the forest sector during October 1998.
He said it was intended to be voluntarily adopted and implemented over a two-year period. The sector was invited to submit written comments on any aspect of the code.
Evans said a review of the code was done in 2001 by the GFC to examine the problems, criticisms and inadequacies which were encountered during the introductory phases of the code.
He said during the last quarter of 2001, a consultant was recruited to assist the GFC to undertake a complete review of the 1998 code to collate comments, prepare a discussion paper, use the information generated from the conventional logging versus reduced impact logging studies to address issues and concerns, and to formulate minimum standards which are now within the second edition of the code of practice.
The second edition of the code was distributed in April 2002.
Evans said several outreach activities were conducted in 2000 in hinterland communities and forest concessions.
It was then the GFC recognised that the social issues within the 1998 code were inadequately addressed.
In 2001, a Sustainable Livelihood Analysis was carried out by the GFC followed by the development of the Social Development Programme.
Evans said two consultants were recruited to work along with him during June 2002, under the DFID project, on integrating social issues of forest management systems which would be incorporated in the development of minimum social standards.
Attending the workshop were representatives from the Forest Products Association, community-based logging associations, non-governmental organisations from Amerindian communities, international agencies working in the natural resources sector, regional administrations, and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs.