– does not believe company can regain forest stewardship certificate
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is no longer working with Barama Company Limited (BCL) on re-gaining certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the head of WWF’s local office says that he does not believe that the forestry company can recapture that distinction.
“There are too many issues and it doesn’t look like that will happen,” said Dr Patrick Williams, WWF’s country manager. He stated that Barama does not have the managerial or technical capabilities and the company does not seem to be making a serious attempt to deal with the issues. He pointed out that WWF had “disconnected” from Barama a while ago.
No one from the forestry company could be reached for comment on Friday and this newspaper was told that Chief Executive Officer of the company, Peter Ho, was out of the country while Forest Planning Manager Neil Chand had already left the office and would not be returning for the day. It has been two years since the FSC certification was suspended by SGS-Qualifor (SGS), an independent FSC-accredited certification body. Barama had been awarded the certification in February 2006 for 570,000 hectares of its forests in west central Guyana by SGS − only a portion of its vast concession. It had been suspended on January 2007 following an audit, for failing to maintain the standards in forest management which it had previously reached.
Asked for an update of the re-certification status on Thursday, Dr Williams told Stabroek News that the WWF was disappointed at the way the issue turned out because the organization had put a lot of resources into assisting the company. “Since Barama we have reviewed our position in terms of the support we give to private enterprises,” he stated, adding that the rules were a bit more stringent now. The WWF had provided financial and technical support to Barama in the process leading up to its successful certification.
He noted that Barama may well be gradually working on the issues but he was not aware that much had happened. He pointed out that the company would have to go through the entire process again, noting that it was a long one and involved a lot of financial and technical resources. The WWF country manager said that he did not expect to see the company regain certification in the foreseeable future. Currently, Iwokrama is the only local organisation that is FSC certified.
Back in September 2007, Barama’s then Chairman Girwar Lalaram, had said that the company was expecting to have an audit done of its operations in a bid to regain certification. The company had hired a consultant to perform a pre-audit exercise to make sure it was in order for the FSC audit. Lalaram left the company in May last year.
Around that time too, concerns had been raised regarding the effect a corruption debacle involving the company would have had on the re-certification process. The company was made to pay the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) a fine of $96.4M for a number of breaches related to under-declaration and the falsifying of documentation with respect to product origin committed in third party concessions. One criterion for certification is the strict adherence to system procedures which include the tagging of logs and chain of custody requirements. WWF-Guianas staff had visited BCL’s forest concession in late February and early March 2007 to observe the company’s on-the-ground response to the suspension of its FSC certificate and corresponding corrective action requests issued by SGS Qualifor in January 2007. The visit was a follow up to a meeting between BCL, FSC and WWF held in Bonn, Germany in February 2007 to review the findings of the SGS-Qualifor and Accreditation Services International (ASI) audits that had led to the suspension, and the actions necessary on the part of BCL to secure the reinstatement of the FSC certificate. WWF in a press release in April 2007 had reiterated its call both to BCL and its parent company Samling, to make a high level commitment to responsible forestry according to the rigorous standards of the FSC.
The WWF visit included a limited survey of compartment 5 of the BCL concession, the Buck Hall sawmill and management centre, main field camp, logging crew camps, as well as three non-BCL concessions where BCL is currently conducting harvesting operations. The visit revealed that BCL did not practice reduced impact logging (RIL) on third party concessions. According to WWF, BCL said that the investment required to implement RIL on these concessions was difficult to justify given their lack of long-term tenure, since concession owners could terminate their supply contracts with BCL at any time.
The visit found that there had been a lack of consistent decision-making and exercise of authority by BCL managers who truly understood the details of FSC certification and cutting-edge, modern sustainable forest practices. WWF had said that high staff turnover in management, coupled with (cross-cultural challenges) had inhibited consistent application of BCL policies. This situation had also exacerbated a breakdown in dialogue with many key stakeholders, WWF had stated. The visiting team found that while some aspects concerning workers’ living conditions, health and sanitation were being improved, others were wanting.
The leadership of the WWF must be highly commended for its principled position on the Barama Company’s poor stewardship of our forests. The WWF has shown in its action that it is willing to adhere to its mandate of ensuring the continued viability and protection of the natural resource base/heritage of nations in the golal community. The exemplary leadership demonstrated by its local director could and ought to be emulated by all of the national leadership, in general. GUYANA FIRST!
The national population and moreso, our indigenous people will look back on this decision by the WWF as a watershed day in the history of our continued efforts to control and manage our natural resources in a truly sustainable manner. Congrats to the WWF.
Its time Mr Green be removed from his office.The residents of the city deserve better stewardship.
Thank paul boodhan
you are out of your cotton picking mind paul boodhan. Green as nothing to do with barama(BCL).
Kudos to the WWF for their “No bias, No bull” approach to responsible and sustainable forestry for severing ties with companies that FAILED TO maintain the standards in forest management. This is a good day for the people of GY.
Congrats Mr Williams for being firm on forest practise issues, now the government should play their part in seeing that the violaters be prosecuted.
congrats to the wwf
our natural resource, congrats to the wwf
I must commend u guys for being so one sided in high praise and failing to take into consideration the efforts the company has made to rectify these problems. If the government & GGMC is failing to control the miners who are the major contributor for the company to fail Forest Steward Council, is it possible for Barama to control them? Some body talk to me. The WWF in previous press release after the suspension said that BCL is rectifying the Corrective Action Request (CARS) were they saying this to mis-led the public because now they change their position with the company. This is only part of the story..Phew!
In the first place, there should not have been any PROBLEM. Look what happen in Brazil. In my book, prevention is better, than any CURE.
I fully agree with you Alanzo. When it was a good press op., WWF was championing Barama. In the immediate aftermath of the FSC withdrawal of the certificate they still were championing the cause. How come now they have pulled out leaving the company on its own. Barama was what it is back then too. Why did they get involved in the first place?
Hindsight is 20/20!
Thank God for the WWF.
Many companies, conduct their operations, by exploiting the natural resources, with complete disregard for the long term interest of the native populations and also in breach of international conventions.
In Somalia and other parts of Africa, with significant poverty, chaos and lack of governance; Chinese companies are rapidly replacing others, by turning ‘a blind eye’ to the dictatorial regimes and destitute conditions in these countries, in their (Chinese Companies) drive to obtain natural resources for the ever increasing demand in china.
No one, should be allowed to conduct their business by jepordising the long term interest of the society.
The government of Guyana, should set clear rules and monitoring mechanisms, to esure the nation’s natural resourses are exploited and harnessed, in a sustainable manner.
And, the government should ensure compliance by rigorous monitoring of these business operations.
Light, thanks for shining the light.
A company cannot come into your country and do what they like unless the government of the day ALLOWS them do it. That has always been the case with Barama. They are only in it for money. The people who should be looking out for the interests of the local people were/are either sleeping or incompetent!
There are very clear rules set. We have a code for forest harvesting and guidelines for issuing TSAs and the subsequent management of those TSAs etc. but who pays attention to those? Monitoring? GFC? Pulease!