Forest definition
As pointed out last week, today’s column starts an assessment of Guyana’s non-mineral extractive sector. In coming weeks the focus will be on forestry, a strategic sub-sector. However, in light of ongoing public disputation over Guyana’s forest (and in particular its productive forest), prudence demands that I commence by indicating how the forest is treated in this presentation.
Being prudent is necessary as, I believe, the average non-specialist reader would be astounded to learn, as I was while preparing this column that there are more than eight hundred published definitions of what is a forest! Further, scores of these different definitions are found enshrined in the world’s forest laws and regulations. This wide variation persists among even homogeneous groupings of neighbouring countries and regions,
