Dear Editor,
I READ Terrence Williams’s letter in the Sunday Kaieteur News (09-10-2016) captioned “A plea to the Guyana Forestry Commission” and I am in agreement with his letter. Williams’s letter was in response to Dr Janette Bulkan’s letter in the media, where she said that the UK’s ban on our greenheart is correct on the basis that Guyana does not practise Sustainable Forest Management (SFM). Dr Bulkan is entitled to her own views regarding Guyana’s forestry sector, even though they are not consistent with assessments made by international Forest Monitors (IFM) on Guyana’s deforestation rate.
For example, Guyana’s year 5 interim measures report for forest–based performance required by the Kingdom of Norway stated that Guyana has achieved a deforestation rate of 0.065%. This is still very low and by comparison to other forest countries, the lowest. This forest-based performance report for January 2014- December 2014 was assessed and endorsed by international forestry experts from Norway stipulated by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Guyana and Norway in pursuance of Guyana’s low-carbon development strategy (LCDS).
It is also important to mention that Guyana’s interim measures report for year 5 for Norway was based on Redd + indicators, as well as the previous reports using our own monitoring , reporting and verification system (MRVS) developed by the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) in partnership with stakeholders. So basically it is not fair to say that the GFC is not practising sustainable Forest Management as is always claimed by Dr Bulkan.
But Dr Bulkan, while being a GFC board director who resides overseas and uses Skype at board meetings, continues to express uncomplimentary views about the management of Guyana’s forestry sector in the public domain instead of at board meetings which brings into question the matter of confidentiality. This I find very strange, since it is not based on professionalism and in this regard I do believe that the GFC should have a code of conduct for its board members. Like Terrence Williams, I do believe that the ban on greenheart by the United Kingdom (UK) is simply not correct and it should be removed, since it is not justified.
Regards
Peter Persaud