Dear Editor,
Over the past few days, Kaieteur News – a daily newspaper, previously known for its keenness and professional investigative journalism, has been engaged in what can be justifiably called a programmed hatchet job against a foreign investor – Bai Shan Lin – from China. The reason why this newspaper dedicated so much of its resources, energy and time to this effort can only be known by its editor, owner and publisher. Suffice it to say that their motivation was neither patriotic nor altruistic because the overwhelming percentage of its so-called exposé came from a trough filled with half-truths, innuendos, misinformation and sensationalised departure from fact, the truth and the extant law.
I feel constrained to get involved not to defend Bai Shan Lin – they have enough resources to do so for themselves – but because I am a stakeholder in the forestry sector. I played the leading role in the establishment of the community logging associations in Guyana. I am aware of the large number of persons in Region 10 who benefit directly from the Chinese involvement in the forestry sector in Region 10, and I know that this kind of journalism displayed by Kaieteur News can and will be damaging and discouraging to any future foreign investment into the sector, which investment is necessary and vital for its development. So the record must be set straight.
Firstly, Guyanese must decide what kinds and levels of investments we will accept and encourage in our extractive sectors – mining and forestry. In mining we have several foreign players – Bosai and Rusal in bauxite, a foreign company in manganese, several foreign companies in gold and diamonds and all of these companies have one thing in common: they bring in maximum investment in order to reap maximum volumes to derive maximum profits, most or all of which they repatriate to their countries of origin. This has always been the nature of foreign direct investment and it will always be so.
Secondly, Guyanese decided in 2009 through their elected representatives in parliament, the way the forestry sector is to be managed, monitored and exploited by all players local and foreign, the laws did not make a distinction. In 2009, the Revised Forest Act became law and was supported by all parties in Parliament. So the structure of the forestry sector, the way it is managed and monitored, and the way it is utilised was settled way back in 2009 by the Guyanese people, through their elected representatives.
The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) is charged, under law, with the responsibility of monitoring our forests and policing the Forest Act. The GFC is managed by a Board of Directors whose chairman is one of Guyana’s finest public servants and whose officers, from the Commissioner down to the junior staff, are some of the finest, patriotic and dedicated public servants you will find in Guyana. To imply or to state blandly that the GFC allows Bai Shan Lin or any other stakeholder in the forestry sector to operate in breach of the laws and regulations, without proof or evidence, is to falsely malign and impugn the character of the fine Guyanese men and women who manage the GFC from the Board right down. This is bad, unpatriotic and downright shamelessly wrong!
Let me state some facts:
1. Bai Shan Lin is not the only Chinese player in Guyana’s forestry sector.
2. The ship/boat shown in photographs by Kaieteur News does not belong to Bai Shan Lin; it belongs to another Chinese investor.
3. Many of the logs shown by Kaieteur News as belonging to Bai Shan Lin, in fact belong to other stakeholders and loggers.
4. In Region 10 alone, logging associations exist in almost every community – 2 in Linden, 2 in Kwakwani, 1 in Aroaima, 1 in Ituni, 1 in Coomacka, 1 in Rockstone, 1 in #47 Miles Mabura Road and 1 in Three Friends Mines Demerara, plus all the Amerindian communities have their own concessions. These associations and communities have concessions totalling in excess of 1 million acres and benefit in excess of 2500 persons directly.
5. Each concession is allowed to harvest at the rate of 0.1m3 per acre per annum which means that in Region 10 alone, small stakeholders and Amerindian communities can harvest and sell a total of 100,000 m3 of logs annually. What has been happening is that because of no access to investment funding to acquire machinery – tractors, skidders, loaders, trucks and bulldozers – the small operators have been struggling and could have harvested at best only about 20% of their allowable cut while the remaining 80% is not added to the next year’s quota, so the sector, as far as the small players were concerned, was stagnated and moribund, and the main objective of the community logging associations, which is to improve the lives of members and their families was defeated and remained unattainable.
6. The advent of the Chinese – Bai Shan Lin and others – changed this reality and small loggers can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here’s why: under the Forest Act, any logger can fix the price for his logs at the stump, ie, on the ground where it is felled. He then legally and lawfully rents equipment from whomsoever and takes his logs to market; he then deducts the rental charges and pockets the rest – minus royalties and felling charges. For the first time in the history of the forestry sector in Guyana, the small logger can log his concession and make a profit without the heavy burden of acquiring machinery, and that is precisely because of the hundreds of trucks, skidders, loaders and bulldozers brought into the country by Bai Shan Lin and other Chinese investors.
7. To say, as Kaieteur News has printed, that hundreds of containers of logs are shipped out by Bai Shan Lin is sensationalised gobbledegook and only meant to mislead and scare the uninformed.
Here are the facts:
a. The maximum volume allowed in a 40-foot container is 18m3.
b. Region 10 alone has an annual allowable cut of approximately 100,000m3 so Region 10 alone can legally and lawfully harvest, sell and ship 5,556 40-foot containers per annum, or 15 containers per day every single day of the year.
c. Less than half of this volume is presently being shipped out of Region 10 at the moment.
d. The average price being paid by buyers (and there are many Guyanese buyers too) at this time is US$60 per cubic metre at the stump and at least 90% of this ends up in the hands / pockets of the small logger. Can Kaieteur News imagine the economic spin-off and value to Region 10 if the entire allowable cut is harvested and sold?!
Politicians must be careful and mindful of how they jump on other people’s bandwagon. How can a policy to import machinery and equipment to be used in the forestry sector, thereby helping the small loggers – especially in your constituency – be a bad policy? Guyana is still a primary producing and exporting economy; more ships coming to Guyana to carry out bauxite is a good thing; more dredges in the gold and diamond mining sectors is a good thing; more sugar and rice exported is a good thing; when did more timber exports become a bad thing?
Community logging associations were established through political struggle, picketing demonstrations and protest marches – I led that struggle – with two objectives: 1. to ensure that forested land was given to communities and 2. to ensure that the forested land, once given, is used by communities to enhance and improve their lives and livelihood. The first objective began to be achieved when government gave to Region 10 Forest Producers Association 44,000 acres of forested land at Makouria on the Essequibo River in 2001. To date, over 700,000 acres of forested land is now controlled by community logging associations. The second objective is now being achieved, thanks to the facility of using surplus Chinese and other equipment.
Bai Shan Lin and other large and small Chinese corporate citizens must understand, however, that they cannot operate in a community in Guyana and be separate and aloof from that community, destroy its roads and other infrastructure without contributing to its repair and upkeep. Bai Shan Lin, especially in Region 10, because of its size and high visibility, must culturally adapt and participate in the life of the region, contribute to development in sports, health, agriculture, education, etc. In short, put aside a small portion of their budget to spend on becoming a good, exemplary corporate citizen.
Yours faithfully,
Phillip G Bynoe
