Guyana is one of several countries within the Guiana Shield expected to benefit from a Euro $1.5M agreement recently signed between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
On Friday at the Forestry Training Centre Incorporated (FTCI) on Water Street, Kingston where the media was briefed on an EU-funded chainsaw milling project being undertaken here, EU representative Alain Castgrmans stated that the agreement is a new initiative being pursued in forestry conservation. It was signed last week.
He said that the project is a continuation of the on-going one aimed at promoting and supporting the conservation and sustainable development of the Guiana shield with the focus here being on support to Iwokrama.
At the briefing it was noted that the chainsaw milling project is making progress while a number of challenges have been identified and are being addressed by the project managers.
The Euro $2.3M project has been implemented in three communities, Ituni, Orealla/Siparuta and the Annai area and it is being managed by the Netherlands-based Tropenbos International through local partners, FTCI and the Iwokrama International Centre.
Director of Resource Management and Training at Iwokrama, Dr Raquel Thomas noted that the project, which provides direct employment to approximately 8,000 Guyanese has registered several achievements including an improved relationship between regulatory bodies, communities, community organizations and individuals by facilitating discussion forums. Thomas noted that baseline research for the chainsaw project has been undertaken to determine the genesis and growth of chainsaw lumbering in Guyana and challenges within the sub-sector.
Among the challenges are, to have a reduction in conflicts between chainsaw millers and other forest stakeholders as well as to have a reduction in poverty in the relevant areas since a number of poor people with few other livelihood options practise the wood cutting technique. The project, one of two being managed by Tropenbos, the other being undertaken in Ghana, sees the facilitation of skills between the three pilot communities in the production of craft from non-timber forest resources, organizational, institutional and community development in the three communities.
Other aspects of the project being addressed are the training of chainsaw operators in the use of a variety of efficient milling technologies, and educating operators on safety, felling practices, log selection and measurement, and timber storage and hygiene.
In terms of future development, several areas including training in administration and governance for community forest associations, village councils and other groups, the raising of awareness and the facilitation of movement to other forms of sustainable livelihoods as well as the facilitation of a multi-stakeholder dialogue at the national level on strategic issues which will inform policy changes, will be examined. Thomas stated that the five-year project, with two years left in its timeline, will also seek to address the issue of utilizing wood waste which is one of the major issues affecting the sector.
Castagrmans noted that chainsaw milling project is unique, in that it targets all the stakeholders of chainsaw lumbering in Guyana, particularly those directly involved in the economic activity.
He said that the EU is active in tackling the problem of illegal logging and he noted that such efforts are manifested in the EU’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) action plan which sets out a programme of actions that forms part of the EU’s response to the problem.
Chainsaw milling (a process which involves the use of guiding bars in the cutting of logs) can be defined as the conversion of logs at stump into lumber using the chainsaw. It has emerged as a major component of the timber industry in Guyana and the activities of this sub-sector provided an estimated 40 percent of the fees received by the Guyana Forestry commission (GFC).
Chain-sawn lumber can supply domestic markets with timber more cheaply than sawmilled lumber because of the relatively high production costs of the large forest concessions. The wood cutting technique is carried out by operators who are highly skilled but poorly trained and the job description is usually described as strenuous and dangerous.
