– Guyana eyes FLEGT licence

WHILE expanding its focus to support sectors such as health and agriculture in the Caribbean, the European Union (EU) will continue to fund projects to promote and maintain sustainable forestry.

In Guyana, a €5 million sustainable-management programme is expected to come on stream, the EU’s Ambassador to Guyana, Rene van Nes, told the Guyana Chronicle recently.

“Our approach is not to say big fence around the forest, don’t touch it, it is to say use the forest but in a sustainable way, van Nes said during an interview.

The programme will see support given to indigenous communities in the forested regions of the country.

For the past decades, the EU has been supporting Guyana through several programmes and initiatives promoting sustainable use and conservation of the forest.

Guyana boasts a forest coverage of over 87 per cent; this unexplored coverage stores over 19.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

“If people can use it sustainably, then they have interest in protecting the forest because it is their livelihood, and so we have a quite sizable programme — €5 million for Guyana — making sure that these communities can build a sustainable programme.”

In addition to this, support will be given to advance monitoring through a satellite programme.

Further, Guyana’s balanced forest management practices could see the country soon being licensed under the European Union’s (EU) Forest Legality Governance Enforcement and Trade (FLEGT).

“When it comes to the forestry-management practices, Guyana is really already advanced,” van Nes said.

The European Union (EU) launched the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) programme in response to the global problem of illegal logging.

“Guyana has signed up to a whole range of commitments to make sure that logging is done in [a] sustainable way and they are advanced already,” van Nes said.

WHAT IS FLEGT?
Simply explained, FLEGT is an action plan outlining several steps to address the issues of forest governance and law enforcement in the industry.

A key element of this action plan is the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), a bilateral agreement between the EU and a timber-producing partner country.

In 2012, Guyana began formal negotiations with the EU on a FLEGT VPA, and through a collaborative process, the Guyana Government, and EU established the shared goal of fostering forest governance and addressing illegality.

Last month, this newspaper reported that Guyana is making progress towards effectively joining the VPA.

The Ministry of Natural Resources convened a crucial meeting at the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) on Wednesday, where key discussions focused on the establishment of the Government Co-ordination Body (GCB), which will be a key component of the VPA implementation structure.

At the meeting, representatives discussed the integral role of the GCB in ensuring a coordinated and cohesive approach to meet the objectives outlined in the VPA.

These objectives, set forth by the EU FLEGT initiative, include stimulating markets, retaining international markets for Guyana’s exporters, demonstrating the legality and sustainability of timber production, and enhancing reporting requirements within the chain of custody management.

The EU FLEGT VPA, signed in December 2022 and officially ratified in April 2023, marks a significant commitment by Guyana to address forestry-related challenges and promote responsible and sustainable timber production.

The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has been tasked with representing the Co-operative Republic of Guyana in achieving the objectives outlined in the VPA.

One of the primary objectives of the VPA is the establishment of the Guyana Timber Legality Assurance System (GTLAS). This national system ensures that all aspects of forestry production comply with relevant laws, encompassing social, environmental, and financial regulations.

“Guyana will be licensed, that is very special. At this moment, there is only one country in the world that is licensed with the FLEGT. Likely, Ghana will be licensed, so if Guyana is able to get licensed as well…then [Guyana] will really be up there in terms of forest practices,” he said.

Currently, Indonesia is the only country with a FLEGT licensing scheme in effect.

Ghana is in the process of also acquiring its licence, Guyana will be the third country, Van Nes said.