Dear Editor,

I am a patriotic Guyanese who never left my country to seek greener pastures. I stayed in the logging industry through good and bad times. I used to do logging with my father and grandfather, and my son is also in logging.The Forestry Department met with me many times and encouraged all loggers to follow their rules; and because we saw the benefit, everyone did, maybe not fully but acceptably. I know for a fact that Guyana is doing well in logging, maybe not so much in manufacturing, but the manufacturing sector needs certain support to develop; but logging is okay. I can verify this as an on-the-ground man.

And don’t let people fool you. As Guyana Forestry Commission says, a log or a board is not like a piece of gold or diamond. You can’t hide it in your pocket. Eventually you will get caught, because if the Forestry Dept. doesn’t find out themselves, people like me will expose them, because everyone has to operate legally.

But back to the point: What is the role of Janet Bulkan and the GFC Board in all this?

We loggers believe that you, as Board members, were put there to help develop the industry and help small people like me; but it’s confusing now, because here we have Bulkan publicly attacking the industry without no facts to back her up, and the board not saying anything about her ‘non-facts’ is a direct stamp of approval.

So the very board which is supposed to help us to progress is helping to destroy our markets by saying blatant untrue thing about our good SFM and international approved forestry systems.

What do loggers do now? We were earning a decent living doing compliance with GFC rules. Now there are poor markets, and the little we have is being destroyed by her.

Someone said that the board is anti-logging; that it is said that we can get more money for standing trees.
If this is the direction, let us know clearly; because not one cent of Norway benefited me, only the people at the top. So why should I trust this payment for standing trees now, especially when we can do both, since SFM cares for the environment.

Or maybe I need to pack up my traps, go overseas and become a professionally paid critic; a Judas who betrays his entire country for a few pieces of silver.
JOSEPH ST. CLAIRE