Gov’t working to reverse UK ban on Greenheart

THE ban on greenheart exports to the United Kingdom (UK) remains a major concern, Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge said on Wednesday.

Minister Greenidge, speaking at his South Road Ministry, said the ban on greenheart exports to the UK continues to engage the attention of the government. In addition to the ongoing talks with the UK, the government through the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) is trying to ensure that the required standards applicable to the harvesting of greenheart and other species are established and enforced.

Such moves, he posited, may aid in bringing an end to the ban.

“It has been a little bit of a sore point for us and I know that within the private sector [it] is a concern,” he positing while assuring that the UK high commissioner has been meeting British authorities on Guyana’s behalf.

Greenheart exports to the UK went from US$3.2 million in 2014 to US$1million in 2015.

The Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) has long blamed the incorrect labelling of Guyana’s forest management practices for the ban.

The ban, which went into effect in May 2015 following its imposition by the UK Environment Agency, came as a surprise to the local industry, on the basis that the private sector and government were in communication with Central Point for Expertise on Timber (CPET) that advised UK government agencies on timber procurement policies.

The GMSA had noted that because of the need to prove legality and sustainability and meet certification standards, the industry had entered into negotiations under the European Union programme for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT), which aims to reduce illegal logging by strengthening sustainable and legal forest management, improving governance and promoting trade in legally produced timber.

The stakeholders noted that the consultants to CPET did state that EU FLEGT licensing “would” constitute adequate evidence of Category B compliance, and hence allows exports.

The International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) had identified Guyana as one of only six tropical forest-producing countries in the world practising sustainable forestry management at the forest-concession level.

Further, it noted that Global Forest Watch’s deforestation ranking put Guyana’s periodic deforestation rate at 0.568 per cent, making Guyana the lowest-ranked tropical or largely forested country in the world.

In addition, the stakeholders noted that Yale University Environmental Performance Index in 2016 ranked Guyana fourth worldwide (out of 116 countries) in tree cover loss, behind only Georgia, Vanuatu and Bhutan.

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