Today’s column continues the discussion of the relation of interior/forestry roads to development within the context of the third cause singled out by the PRSP as contributory to endemic poverty: the absence of non-complementing growth-oriented infrastructure (PRSP 2001, p. 7). This analysis is undertaken in the context of the question: Why is there persistent poverty in the interior alongside the parcelling out of Guyana’s best endowed forests in large-scale forestry concessions?
In November 2006, the General Secretary of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) addressed the issue of the blocking of timber roads to free passage. “Enquiries, Shields told the miners, revealed there was no such thing as a private road. No one can stop another from using a road. However there is a road protocol, which says that if one is maintaining a road that person would have some authority but blocking of roads with trucks ‘must be made a thing of the past'” (Stabroek News, November 11, 2006). Some logging companies charge a toll for the right of passage on a road through their concession; for example, Guyana Sawmills Limited, charges between G$5,000 and G$10,000 to vehicles on the Itaballi Trail. Permissions are also given in the Public Lands (Private Roads) Act Cap 62:03 – Article 3 (1) permission to construct; Art 3 (2) possible public compensation for that construction/maintenance; Art 5(1) power to levy a toll set by the minister; Art 6, grantee of a permission deemed to be owner and hence can control vehicular but not pedestrian access.
Section 6 of the act addresses the issue of trespass on roads and provides that the grantee of a permission under the act is deemed to be the owner of the land occupied by the road only for the purposes of any law dealing with wilful trespass on lands. Thus there is no ‘ownership’ in an absolute sense but only for the limited purpose of wilful trespass which has a special meaning in law. The grantee of the permission is only deemed to be the owner if someone wilfully trespasses on the said land. Wilful trespass in this sense means activities such as entering and cutting or destroying any wood, or by digging or carrying away, etc. without the permission of the owner
