THE natural resources of a country belong to the people, and must be protected and shared among the citizens, current and future.
These resources do not belong to any specific group; as such, it requires national policies and programmes to preserve and protect both our forestry and mining sectors. In countries such as ours, at times our lapses are not caused by the absence of policies and laws, but by the disrespect of those policies and laws. The destruction of the environment has scientifically shown that it has contributed to changes in weather and oceanic patterns as in the case of the hurricanes roaring through the Caribbean.
Aqua life, which includes fishing and re-populating, is being destroyed and this makes life and economic welfare difficult for seafood users and suppliers. Man and the forests have an intertwined and interdependent relationship, not only through economic pursuits, soil protection and resources for shelter, but also in the air needed for our existence, wherein the plant, as it gives off oxygen, Man intakes, and Man, as he gives off carbon dioxide, the plant intakes.

Today, Guyana finds itself at a critical juncture, whereby the preservation of the physical environment is seen as an important element in development within the international community, and which, quite rightly, the nation has bought into. As such, it requires a new way of thinking and doing business in the forestry and mining sectors.

It is instructive that, only this week, President David Granger, in receiving Guyana’s Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) Vision 2040 from United Nations Environment Programme’s Director, Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Leo Heileman, said the strategy is very important not only to Guyana, but to those countries within the Guiana Shield and even our CARICOM sister territories. According to him, the world is realizing, almost by the day, that climate change is a grim, relentless reality. He said there is no avoidance, noting that hardly a day passes “that we do not see the adverse impact of climate change. It is great for us to be ahead of the game. We have challenges with our coastal zone management; we have cycles of El Nino, drought and flood in our hinterland; we have industries which are now starting to have an impact on air quality and water quality,” the President said.

In the area of mining, for a number of years, mining companies operating even in this Region, as close as in Jamaica, are expected to refill and return areas dug out to its original elevation, and more so to replant vegetation. In Guyana, the exercise continues as mining companies, domestic and foreign, destroy the forests, leave logs to rot, dig major holes in acquiring the minerals they are in search of, and move to other locations without returning the respective areas to conditions that would ensure they are habitable. In whatever is being done, acceptable universal practices and values must be respected; at no time should this nation countenance any imposition to the contrary by any group, domestic or foreign, given that the country has embraced the “Green Economy,” which constitutes sustainable development, environmental protection, labour policies and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Core Labour Standards.

As a nation, there is need to learn from history. For, right around the corner, the forests in Haiti were destroyed, not merely by Haitians, but by foreign investors. While a people ought not to harbour any anti-foreign investment idea or position, sight ought not to be lost that the citizens today are the custodians of the properties for future generations. Every programme, in every sector, has to be developed within the confines of immediate, mid-term and long-term plans. It is to this nation’s and its people’s well-being that investments be conducted in a manner which is respectful of sustainable development, wherein extraction will be accompanied by the refilling and re-vegetating of the land and extracting in a manner, where the forests are not destroyed or the land mined-out in a period of time that denies coming generations opportunities to benefit.