Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 16, 2016 News
– Govt. devises strategy to reverse restriction
By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Daily, the APNU+AFC government has to deal with the consequences of actions taken by the previous
administration. The current ban on the exportation of greenheart woods from Guyana to the United Kingdom is one such example of unwanted inheritance.
At a press conference he hosted on Friday, Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman said that the ban on greenheart is a matter of serious concern to the government. He said that the Cabinet has been apprised and several ministers are working assiduously to resolve the matter.
The inter-ministerial team is made up of the Ministries of Business and Foreign Affairs and of course Trotman.
The Natural Resource Minister said, “Greenheart is literally at the heart and soul of Guyana’s timber industry. It represents; in a sense, the strength of Guyana. To us we have a reputation to protect and we have to ensure that those who produce logs for use in marine construction (wharves) and, for lumber that we give them what they desire and that is, markets in the United Kingdom.”
Trotman said that the government is concerned that this ban, if left, could “like a virus, spread itself into other parts of Europe and elsewhere.”
Trotman continued, “We are very close in terms of working with the European Union and the European Union forest law governance system. (The ban) is a national issue and will receive a national response.”
The Minister indicated that early next year, a ministerial delegation will travel to the United Kingdom to press Guyana’s case. “We’re very interested in restoring the smooth trade and lifting the ban. We’ve had communication with the British High Commission,” Trotman said.
He told the media, “I believe it was a culmination of many events, including the sense that our forests were being managed, or mismanaged, in a perilous manner.”
Further, the Minister said that he also believes that “it may have had some political aspects attending to it and also there is international lobbying by other countries that produce not greenheart but a species that could be used for some of the same on purposes and so it is a combination of us being outmaneuvered.”
Trotman himself noted that “the ban came quite coincidentally in May 2015 when relations between Great Britain and Guyana were at an all time low, just before Government changed. I believe (that is) when the High Commissioner of Great Britain was asked or told that he was free to leave or something like that.
All of these things seemed to have culminated at a particular point in time but as I said they are quite anecdotal and right now we are very interested in restoring the smooth trade and lifting the ban.”
In a statement issued last year, Environmental Agency stated, “A decision has been made that we will apply the timber procurement policy rigorously and that we will only buy timber from legal and sustainable sources.
“This currently prohibits the purchase of new Greenheart’ (from Guyana) as it does not have sufficient evidence (based on UK Government requirements) that the forests of origin are sustainably managed.”
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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