Pact signed for 200,000-acre conservation concession
Stabroek News
July 18, 2002
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President Bharrat Jagdeo says impoverishment contributes to the degradation of the environment and is urging all stakeholders to broaden the scope of areas in which they could work together to alleviate poverty.

The President approved the issuance of a Timber Sales Agreement (TSA) yesterday to Conservation International (CI) after which the TSA was signed by Commissioner of Forests, James Singh, and Executive Director of CI Guyana, Joe Singh, for a conservation concession.

The TSA gives CI access to 200,000 acres of pristine forest in the upper Essequibo area.

"While we embark on projects that would safeguard the environment, we must remove the pressures that would impact on the environment," the President said at the signing of the TSA at the Office of the President yesterday.

President Jagdeo lauded the initiative of CI and noted the socio-economic benefits that would accrue to the communities in proximity to the project.

He stated that there was an increased propensity for poverty to impact heavily on the environment and singled out the situation in Haiti as an example.

He said solutions must be worked out by all to ensure that policies were comprehensive enough to move people out of poverty. World trade policies, removal of trade preferences and the cessation of aid flows would all impact on the poverty level of countries which would in turn affect the environment, he said.

President Jagdeo expressed appreciation for the role CI was playing to raise the world's awareness of the dangers of environmental degradation. He noted that environment issues never made the agenda on the global scene and urged non-governmental organisations to work harder to make this a reality.

The President stated that the conservation concession was in keeping with the national policy of sustainable use of the forest with special attention to conservation. Noting it was just the second such concession in the world, he recalled that Guyana had led the world in many ways in environmental issues, alluding to the Iwokrama International Rain Forest Centre for Conservation and Development.

The President expressed disappointment that the proposed National Protected Areas System for Guyana was not yet on stream because of what he described as partisan interests. "I do know we can all work together to move the process forward so we can speedily implement the National Protected Areas System," he said.

CI had successfully applied for a standard timber concession; held consultations to inform stakeholders about the idea and to generate support; and formulated a Management Plan in a participatory manner. CI noted that low prices on the domestic and global timber markets, low yields per hectare and relatively high production costs, had contributed to poor financial performance within the timber industry in Guyana. Simultaneously, there has been an increasing willingness to pay for conservation in the international community.

Representatives of Rewa, Apoteri, and Crash Water villages in the Rupununi were at the Office of the President yesterday to witness the handing over of the Timber Sales Agreement to Conservation International for a conservation concession in their area. (Ken Moore photo)

But, international donors do not have a clear mechanism that could allow them to make direct investments to achieve conservation outcomes. CI said one challenge was to find creative ways of using conservation dollars to pay for forest services.

"We are trying to encourage a new way of using forest resources. Rather than cutting them down, we're trying to show how the protection of the resource, with the help of the international community, could generate income," President of CI, Dr Russell Mittermeier, said at the signing yesterday.

Dr Mittermeier described Guyana as a privileged country with about 90% of its natural resources intact. He said CI was working in 30 countries and most of them have retained only about ten per cent of their resources.

In an attempt to achieve conservation, while allowing forest resources to contribute to sustainable development, CI developed the idea of conservation concessions. The concept refers to the idea of choosing not to exercise the rights acquired to the forest produce, when a standard timber concession is obtained. The goal of a conservation concession is to maintain biodiversity. Only activities that are compatible with this goal will be permitted. These could include traditional use that is sustainable, eco-tourism, carbon sequestration, and research.

Conservation concessions are not a substitute for protected areas, but could be an expedient strategy for fast-tracking the achievement of conservation outcomes, CI said. The main activities undertaken to develop and implement the idea of a conservation concession are consultations. CI has consulted with a wide range of stakeholders to ascertain the acceptability of the idea of a conservation concession.

Once support was confirmed, an application was made to the Guyana Forestry Commission for a three-year Exploratory Lease Permit in southern Guyana. This application was successful, but only one-fifth of the area applied for was received.

CI has had ongoing negotiations with the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) to agree on the type and magnitude of payments to be made for the concession.

CI paid the sum of US$37,552 to the GFC yesterday for acreage fees and minimum royalty.

An Environmental Permit has also been sought from the Environmental Protection Agency as a standard safeguard for the project.

CI has signed an agreement with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development to train four forest rangers from the stakeholder communities to monitor the site over the long term. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Government of Guyana to share any data that might be generated from research.

Consultations are ongoing with government agencies with responsibility for other natural resources within the site, but for which legal rights will not be provided under the conservation concession (these include minerals, wildlife and freshwater fish).

The following principles guided the development of the conservation concession: Payments to GFC for the concession will be based on the estimated value of the timber within the site; benefits from the project will be distributed among local stakeholder communities in an equitable manner; existing traditional use of the site will be respected, and CI will work with indigenous stakeholder communities to ensure that traditional use is also sustainable; and an adaptive management approach will be taken.

CI said quantifying the price of the concession is an ongoing challenge, given the limited information available on the conditions affecting the financial value of the site.

GFC recently approved a five-year management plan for the site and this paves the way for receiving the longer-term conservation concession.