A silviculture survey carried out by the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has found that the current felling and management practices by some concessionaires need to be improved to ensure that there are sustained yields for future cutting cycles.

This was disclosed to participants of a workshop held by GFC on Growth and Yield Pilot Study in Guyana held last week. In his presentation at the opening, head of the Forest management Re-sources Division (FRMD), Julian Evans, stated that the condition of the forest in Guyana, in terms of the stocking of commercial species, remains largely unknown in most large concessions.

He stated that the forest policy in Guyana required a stronger regulatory framework to ensure that logging is kept to a level that can be sustained at future harvests.

"Whatever the operational planning, it is the condition of the forest after logging, in term of its stocking of commercial timber trees, that determines future productivity," he said.

A silvicultural survey - a new auditing procedure to assess the condition of forest stands after logging - has been carried out recently by GFC.

Its two main objectives were to quantify the size and impact of the past harvest, and to project the size and timing of future harvests.

The purpose of the silviculture survey is to verify whether harvest levels can be sustained under existing management practices.

The FRMD head disclosed that the results of the survey found that logging intensity varied between felling blocks, depending on forest types.

It was found that the most sought after species have been harvested at levels that exceed a sustained yield. For greenheart the harvesting of round-wood piles as well as saw-logs occurred, the survey noted.

After the survey was carried out, the results were analysed and discussions were held with the licence holder to review them with a view to agreeing on improved forest management controls where necessary. Evans said GFC's Forest Monitoring Division would then monitor the commitments made by the licence holder to abide by the improved controls.

"To date this process has been completed successfully with DTL [Demerara Timbers Ltd]. The situation with IFI Ltd [Interim Forest Industries] is less satisfactory, with no response from the company. GFC should be employing a strategy of increased regulatory emphasis, withholding approval of management plans until the concerns raised in the survey are addressed," he stated.

Out of the survey, it was recommended that concession-level forest management prescription should be developed and implemented in Guyana based, in part, upon the results of silvicultural surveys. Evans said other recommendations were:

* timber harvesting should be based upon scenarios of sustained yield for each species, determined from locally calibrated growth models.

* the use of species-specific cutting limits should be the main management control to guide logging practices under a polycyclic felling system, and

* the survey of 100 hectares felling blocks should continue to be used as this represented an appropriate size for investigating the sustainability of timber harvests in Guyana's tropical rain forests.

Evans noted that it was the first time that the GFC has a field assessment method that directly examined the issue of sustained-yield timber harvesting and documented the logging behaviour of licencees.

He said the survey highlighted the weakness in the forest management system of the licencees.

He pointed out that the survey also provided a mechanism - consultation with the licencee prior to the submission of the forest management plan - that can remedy the weaknesses in a non-confrontational way. The cost of a survey is approximately US$4,500, with one month of field work for eight persons of the FRMD field team, then two weeks of office work.

Evans said GFC hoped to conduct similar surveys on at least 20 active concessions.

In Guyana, 13.5 million hectares are classified as state forest and fall under GFC's responsibility.

Approximately 49% of the forests have been leased for harvesting and conservation concessions.

Of this there are: 20 timber sales agreements. valid for 25-30 years; 6 woodcutting leases, valid for 5-15 years; 3 state forest exploratory leases, valid for 3 years; and approximately 260 state forest permissions, valid for 1 year.

Participants of the workshop included personnel from GFC, and representatives from the Forest Producers Association and Ituni Small Loggers Association.

During the workshop the participants were also expected to examine two forest management models developed by the UK's Department for International Development.